Watertown Square is seen in March 2024. Photo by Steve Adams | Banker & Tradesman Staff
Watertown city councilors last week joined Needham and Lexington officials in moving to dramatically upzone part of their community to comply with the MBTA Communities law.
Numerous parcels in Watertown Square will now be developable, by right, into 4-, 5- and 6-story multifamily buildings. In total, the new zoning allows for between 3,000 and 4,000 new homes. The city was only required to zone for 1,701 homes.
The plan, developed after over a year of public process, was intended to take advantage of the multiple bus lines that converge in Watertown Square to bring significant housing that could support existing businesses and fill a number of vacant or underutilized properties in the area.
A centerpiece of the plan involves requiring developers to offer between 0.5 and one car parking spots per unit in their developments, rent parking spaces to tenants separately from their apartments – a policy known as “unbundling” – and explore sharing parking between different businesses and other uses in the square.
One of the largest parcels in Watertown Square would be set aside for a municipal garage to serve local businesses.
The new zoning, however, would require 15 percent of homes built under it to be set aside as affordable housing despite concerns from some developers that such levels make it much harder to build housing. And city officials said the zoning would incentivize developers to pay into a city fund for new streetscapes that will include extensive bicycle infrastructure and significant street tree planting.
The neighborhood has already seen several new multifamily and biotech developments in recent years, following on a spurt of development in the last 10 years along the Arsenal Street corridor. Those new developments range from Boylston Properties’ Arsenal Yards mall redevelopment and a pair of large multifamily complexes.
The plan was developed with help from consultants Stantec, Utile, Speck Dempsy and Landwise.
A rendering shows a notional build-out under the form-based zoning adopted by Watertown officials Nov. 14, 2024. Image courtesy of the town of Watertown
