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Needham work group weighs FAR formula and a public calculator after spreadsheet discrepancies and questions on fiscal effects
Summary
The Town of Needham work group debated whether to present a numerical FAR or direct square‑foot output to residents and agreed to provide both in a web calculator; members also flagged Excel/graph discrepancies and asked staff to get fiscal analysis on impacts to older homeowners.
Committee members debated two technical approaches to limit building scale: returning a traditional numerical floor‑area‑ratio (FAR) or presenting an immediate square‑foot total generated by a formula. Member 1 argued the group could “bury” the FAR inside a formula that returns square feet, but agreed to provide both outputs to make results transparent to residents.
“We're burying the FAR in a formula, which nobody's gonna understand,” Member 1 said while…
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