Squares + Streets Zoning Districts

Latest Updates

Text Updates to Squares + Streets Zoning 

The latest proposed update to Squares + Streets zoning would add two new districts and make minor changes to four of the six existing Squares + Streets districts.

This amendment is based on feedback and a zoning petition from Hyde Park residents submitted during the Squares + Streets planning process for Cleary Square. The amendment meets the residents’ request for more zoning options for small-scale commercial areas.

Minor Text Updates to Squares + Streets Zoning

In January of 2025, the Zoning Commission adopted a text amendment to make minor updates to the Squares + Streets Zoning District regulations. In summary, the updates:

• Reformat text and tables to make it easier to read the existing zoning rules and understand when they apply;

• Provide greater flexibility to allow certain land use activities commonly found on the ground and upper floors of buildings in mixed use areas (i.e., office spaces, restaurants, clinics, etc.); and

• Make it so residential units on the ground floor of a building along main streets require special permission.

These updates are to respond to public feedback from Small Area Plans in Roslindale Square and Cleary Square and to address questions that have come up recently through implementation in Mattapan

Resources 

Squares + Streets Zoning in Mattapan - Summary Map of Proposed Minor Updates

Community Engagement

2024

Public meeting | Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Overview

Squares + Streets is a planning and zoning initiative of the City of Boston that focuses on neighborhood centers that are near transit and along main streets across Boston. A major component of the initiative is updating the zoning in these neighborhood centers to guide development that encourages a mix of building uses and heights, creates housing diversity and growth opportunities, and encourages active streets.

In April 2024, the Zoning Commission adopted a zoning text amendment into the Boston Zoning Code to meet these goals by creating six (6) new Squares + Streets zoning districts.

Squares + Streets zoning districts will be categorized by how building types, land uses, parcel sizes, and building scales function across the variety of Boston’s main streets and neighborhood centers.

These zoning districts are a set of zoning options that can be mapped onto appropriate areas of the City only after community engagement processes and analysis of local contexts.

Squares + Streets Zoning Text Amendment

Please review the ADOPTED ZONING TEXT AMENDMENT AND SUMMARY MATERIALS BELOW to understand how all these updates work together to enable these zoning districts to function in meeting the goals of this initiative: