Norfolk Planning Board Sends Two Zoning Changes to May Town Meeting

NORFOLK — March 25, 2026 — Norfolk Planning Board advances B1 zoning overhaul to May 13 Town Meeting while punting on open-space density bonuses. The board voted 4-0 Wednesday to send amendments to the town's B1 District — including raising the maximum building footprint from 15,000 to 30,000 square feet, allowing up to four stories in the business core by special permit, and creating a flexible mixed-use pathway for standalone residential buildings in the town center — to the May 13 Annual Town Meeting. A second package of open-space subdivision changes, which would establish tiered density bonuses of 20 to 40 percent across the town's three residential zones as a hedge against Chapter 40B development, was continued to April 14 after member Melissa Mayo argued the numbers lacked market grounding: "If you go to town meeting and any of us stand up there and say we're thinking 40 percent density bonuses — that's not going to go over well, especially not without data." Town Planner Rich McCarthy, who illustrated the stakes with pending 40B proposals at Cranberry Heights (51 units) and 373 Main Street (84 units), said he would reach out to local developers for cost-feasibility data before the next hearing. The board also unanimously authorized a $23,000 survey of the full Medway Branch shared-use path corridor, funded from offsite mitigation reserves, as a prerequisite for design work on the $499,000 Complete Streets-funded path from Barnstable Road to Tucker Road.