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Needham working group debates attic definition, considers 250–300 sq ft bonus for third-floor space
Summary
A Town of Needham planning working group spent over an hour debating whether to exclude nonhabitable attic space from floor-area-ratio calculations or to offer a limited FAR "bonus" (proposals ranged from 200 to 400 sq ft). The group asked Oscar to draft zoning language and scheduled a follow-up for Friday at 1:00 p.m.
A Needham working group on residential floor-area-ratio (FAR) rules debated how to treat attic and third-floor space, with members split over whether to exclude nonhabitable attic volume from FAR or to offer a small FAR bonus to encourage finished third floors.
The group spent most of the meeting weighing two competing goals: reduce visible "bulk" on the first two floors of new homes, and avoid creating easy workarounds that would let builders finish space after permitting. Paul, who reported on a meeting with architect Mike McKay and builder Gary Losanto, said the architects told the group "the figure that we were talking about in that meeting was somewhere in the region of 300 square feet" as a possible incentive to make third floors worth building out.
Why it matters: the planning work aims to limit how heavy or bulky new houses look from the street while preserving flexibility for pitched roofs and attic space. Several…
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