Joint committee, planning board recommend against petition to revert Holly/Phillips parcel from CBSS to URC

The Northampton City Council Legislative Matters Committee and the Planning Board on a joint call voted unanimously to recommend against a resident petition that would amend Chapter 350.4 of the zoning map to change a parcel at Holly Street/Phillips Place from Central Business Side Street (CBSS) to Urban Residential Core (URC).

Supporters of the petition told the two bodies that restoring the parcel to URC would preserve neighborhood protections they said were removed when the city adopted a form‑based code in 2022. "By taking today ... the simple step of starting to return this parcel to the residential URC district ... we can reimpose widely agreed upon common sense already on the books," petitioner Mr. Bridal said during the hearing.

The petitioners said URC rules require limits on massing and height, minimum green space, and parking and affordability provisions they said would better protect neighbors. Property owner O'Connell Holly 2 LLC, represented by Sarah Stein, president of O'Connell Development Group, asked that the zoning remain CBSS and said the parcel — a 0.37‑acre parking lot made of two formerly separate parcels (approximately 0.21 and 0.16 acres) — has been studied previously and was rezoned as part of city planning work. "As the property owner, we ask that the existing zoning ... remain as it currently stands, Central Business Side Street," Stein told the joint bodies.

Director Mish of the Planning Department summarized the regulatory history that led to the current classification, saying the city adopted a form‑based code after a multi‑year process intended to guide downtown growth and to create subzones (core, side street, gateway) with differing characteristics. "The way zoning works is it's forward looking," Director Mish said when asked whether a new zoning designation would affect previously issued permits; she added that permits already issued generally remain valid as nonconforming uses but that zoning applies to future projects.

Public comment included residents who said they were not notified before the 2022 code change, described parking and pedestrian impacts on local streets, and questioned whether CBSS encourages higher‑profit, higher‑mass development without the neighborhood protections that URC provides. Others at the hearing argued that the parcel is an appropriate downtown edge for higher‑density development, that city plans intentionally direct housing toward downtown, and that increased density can advance sustainability and housing‑supply goals.

After presentations and public comment, the two bodies deliberated separately. The Planning Board and the Legislative Matters Committee each took votes to send a recommendation to the full City Council. Both bodies recorded a negative recommendation back to the full City Council; members characterized the zoning distinctions between CBSS and URC, including a 70‑foot maximum height in CBSS versus 50 feet in URC and different setback standards, as central to their deliberations.

What happens next: the committees' recommendations are advisory. The full City Council will receive the recommendations and will consider the petition at a future public meeting; council deliberations provide another opportunity for public comment and for councilors to adopt, reject, or modify the requested map amendment.

Votes at a glance

- Legislative Matters Committee — Recommendation to City Council: Negative (motion: negative recommendation; tally: unanimous among members present).

- Northampton Planning Board — Recommendation to City Council: Negative (motion: negative recommendation; tally: unanimous among members present).