Needham working group endorses adjusted FAR and 300 sq ft attic allowance, sends Option B to Planning Board

The Town of Needham zoning working group on Jan. 5 voted to recommend a middle-path revision to residential FAR rules that reduces the FAR formulas modestly and establishes a 300-square-foot attic allowance intended to preserve pitched-roof character without adding unmeasured living area.

Lee, the working-group presenter, summarized the committee's goals at the start of the meeting, saying the group would "codify or agree on a final definition" for FAR treatment and then work through options A, B and C before forwarding a recommendation to the Planning Board. Oscar, who led the technical presentation, said the proposal aims to make bulk measurable for building inspectors while limiting design workarounds other communities had encountered.

The committee spent the bulk of the meeting debating whether to treat attic space as counted floor area, to provide a standalone 'bonus' of uncounted attic area, or to reduce FAR and give an attic exemption that is recoverable only if used as attic. "We're not giving like uncounted attics," Oscar said, explaining the working group's proposal that unfinished attic area above 5 feet would be counted but that a fixed allowance would be excluded from the FAR calculation to allow a…