Town planners propose Neponet Avenue overlay to guide redevelopment of 50+ acres

Katherine Furick, the town’s director of land use and economic development, told the Select Board the Neponet Avenue proposal creates a zoning overlay to shape redevelopment of more than 50 acres currently zoned general industrial.

"This is a proposal to create a new zoning overlay district that would sit upon and also influence the underlying zoning along Neponet Avenue," Furick said, noting the owner is selling the site and the town formed a resident working group to craft draft regulations and a concept plan available on the town website.

Furick described the overlay’s aims: preserve neighborhood character while allowing redevelopment that could include modest single‑family homes, small retail, offices and limited mixed‑use at locations such as the historic Foxboro Company building. She said the working group heard residents’ priorities — walkability, amenities, green space preservation and housing that reflects existing neighborhood scale — and developers’ constraints, including a market minimum home size near 2,000 square feet.

To show what is feasible under the draft rules, planning staff supplied a concept plan illustrating a range of housing types. Furick said the proposal includes a cottage‑court typology (densely arranged single‑family homes around a common lot, individually conveyed as condo units) and an R15‑zoned area of smaller single‑family lots capped at roughly 8,000 square feet. The draft also allows multifamily housing primarily within the restored historic Foxboro Company building, with the working group capping total multifamily units to limit density in adjacent neighborhoods.

The overlay would continue to prohibit a number of uses the working group found incompatible with the residential context — examples cited were motor‑vehicle fuel facilities, self‑storage warehouses, temporary parking lots and large industrial storage. Furick said engineers and attorneys on the working group have tested the draft language; she emphasized the concept plan is illustrative and not a binding blueprint for future development.

The town has scheduled a community engagement session for March 18 at 6 p.m. and a planning board public hearing on March 26 (after 7 p.m.) where residents may offer final comments that could modify the warrant article before town meeting. Furick encouraged residents to review materials on the land use and economic development web page under the Neponet Avenue tab.

The board did not take final action on the overlay at the meeting; Furick and the working group will continue outreach as the planning board prepares a public hearing record ahead of the annual town meeting.