Inclusionary Zoning

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Updated IZ Ordinance approved by Newton City Council: July 8, 2019
Effective Date of updated ordinance: Aug. 1, 2019. Download the updated ordinance
Project Contact: sdavis@newtonma.gov, 617.796.1125

Between 2017 and June 2019, Newton’s Planning and Development Department worked to amend the City’s Inclusionary Zoning ordinance to better meet the housing needs of Newton today. Like many communities in Massachusetts and across the country, Newton strongly values an economically diverse community; within the City’s Zoning Ordinance, the Inclusionary Zoning regulations support this value and require that new residential development includes opportunities for a mix of household incomes.

On Monday, July 8, 2019, the full City Council voted to adopt the amended ordinance, which will be in effect August 1, 2019. Download the amended Inclusionary Zoning ordinance .

What is Inclusionary Zoning?

Inclusionary Zoning is a popular tool that is used by local governments across the country to leverage private development for the creation of affordable housing. While ordinances take many forms, a common structure is to require a percentage of units in a private development be rented or sold at affordable levels to low- and moderate-income households (usually households at or below 80% of the Area Median Income, AMI) - see below for City of Newton Income Limits table.

A New Ordinance for Today’s Newton

One of the ten Priority Actions to come out of Newton’s 2016 Newton Leads 2040 Housing Strategy was a recommendation that the City strengthen its Inclusionary Zoning ordinance in order to realize the greatest public benefit from private development taking place throughout Newton. In 2015, Mayor Warren docketed an item to increase the existing 15% minimum Inclusionary Housing provision and since that time staff has been working to amend and strengthen this ordinance to better meet the vast and diverse housing needs of Newton today.

The Inclusionary Zoning requirement is based on the total number of units proposed for a development and whether it is a rental or ownership project. The following tables represent the Amended Inclusionary Zoning requirements, effective August 1, 2019:

Rental Projects Table

1 IZ Rental Unit: at or below 80% AMI
2+ IZ Rental Units: AMI must average out at 65% AMI (1/2 of IZ units at 50% AMI and 1/2 at 80% AMI)

Ownership Projects Table

1 or 2 IZ Ownership Units: at or below 80% AMI, priced at 70% AMI
3+ IZ Ownership Units: Tier 1 units must not exceed 80% AMI (priced at 70% AMI), Tier 2 units may be set up to 110% AMI (priced at 100% AMI)

Inclusionary Zoning: Financial Feasibility Analysis

In an effort to design a new Inclusionary Zoning ordinance that would ensure that new housing development in Newton includes units for households of various income levels across the city, while not restraining development altogether, staff contracted with RKG Associates in January 2018 to determine the financial impact resulting from the proposed changes to the City’s existing Inclusionary Zoning ordinance.

The Financial Feasibility Analysis developed by RKG details the approach the consultants used to test the City’s proposed ordinance changes, the results of their analysis, and their recommended modifications to the proposed ordinance.

View the final March 2018 report from RKG.
View RKG's March 2019 memo to ZAP regarding the February 2019 roundtable discussion with the Planning Staff and affordable housing advocates (see below for more detail).

To review RKG's March 2018 presentation to ZAP, download the presentation slides with audio in PowerPoint here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Project Timeline

Inclusionary Zoning Updat Process Flowchart In 2017, the Planning Department met four times with the Zoning & Planning Committee of the City Council (ZAP), including one public hearing in December. In addition, Department staff conducted a number of in-person meetings and phone calls with community stakeholders and subject-matter experts to discuss the proposed changes to the ordinance and solicit feedback from the diverse constituencies.

In March 2018, RKG Associates presented its analysis and recommendations for Newton's Inclusionary Zoning ordinance to the ZAP Committee. In July 2018 and then again in September, the Planning Department presented its updated Inclusionary Zoning proposal to the ZAP Committee and Planning & Development Board, and a Public Hearing was held in November and December of 2018.

On February 19, 2019, staff from the Planning and Law Departments joined Kyle Talente and Jahangir Akbar of RKG Associates and twelve affordable housing advocates for a two-hour roundtable discussion about the proposed Inclusionary Zoning ordinance. The purpose of the meeting was to explore the advocates’ questions and concerns relative to the current IZ proposal, specifically as they related to RKG’s Financial Feasibility Analysis and Model, and to identify points of agreement and disagreement.

The main takeaways from this roundtable discussion are outlined in the March 8, 2019 memo to ZAP, and detailed notes from this meeting are attached as an appendix, along with a response memo from RKG.

Between March and June of 2019, staff continued to consider and respond to the ideas and recommendations that came out of the roundtable discussion. In addition, staff conducted a number of meetings and discussions with for-profit developers in Newton to better understand any questions and concerns they had about staff's 2018 proposal. Also during this time, staff engaged the newly formed Newton Housing Partnership, which looked deeply at the baseline inclusionary zoning requirement and calculation for payments-in-lieu and fractional cash payments. The final proposed ordinance presented to ZAP and the Planning & Development Board closely reflected the Newton Housing Partnership's recommendations.