Town of Natick Natick / Code

Town of Natick

Zoning audit

7 things worth a decision in the Zoning Bylaws: places where it does not agree with something else in it, with the contents, with the zoning map or with the Town's own record of what it has amended, and places where it would be easier to administer written another way. Each names the evidence, and says whose decision it is.

None of them are corrected in the published text. The bylaw on this site reads exactly as Natick prints it, and changing any of this is an amendment rather than a correction.

Against the text current through June 2025

Needs a drafting decision 2

The bylaw contradicts itself or is incomplete here. Only Natick can settle these, and only by amendment — correcting them here would state as law something Natick has never adopted.

§ III-A.4The contents promise a division the body does not contain

The table of contents lists an item "A.4." between A.3, Flood-Plain District, and A.5, Aquifer Protection District. It carries no title and no page number, and no such division appears in the body. Every other division the contents lists was found.

  • Table of contents: "A.4." with no title and no page, between A.3 and A.5
  • No § III-A.4 in the body of the bylaw

Establish whether a division was repealed without the contents being updated, or reserved without being marked reserved. § III-A.1 records a repeal in the contents the same way — "Water Resources Protection District (Deleted)" — so the Town has a convention for this and did not use it here.

read from the Town's materials

§ IV-BTwo different divisions are both numbered IV-B

Section IV numbers its divisions A and B, and then numbers a second division B as well — "Intensity Regulations by Zoning District" at IV-3 and "Footnotes to Intensity Regulations" at IV-5. A citation to § IV-B is therefore ambiguous, and the bylaw cites § IV-B from elsewhere, including the Family Suite row of the Use Regulation Schedule ("See § IV-B.aa").

  • Table of contents: "B. Intensity Regulations by Zoning District IV-3"
  • Table of contents: "B. Footnotes to Intensity Regulations IV-5"
  • Use Regulation Schedule, row B1: "Family Suite, See § IV-B.aa"

Renumber the second one.

read from the Town's materials

Against the enabling statute 3

Where the ordinance appears to require, permit or prohibit something the state act it is adopted under does not allow it to. These are readings of two published texts side by side, not legal advice, and each names the provision on both sides so counsel can check it rather than take our word.

§ III-A.6No district in the bylaw is identified as satisfying § 3A

MGL c. 40A, § 3A requires an MBTA community to have a district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right, without age restrictions and suitable for families with children, at a gross density of at least 15 units per acre. The phrase "section 3A" appears nowhere in the bylaw. The district that most resembles a compliant one is the Smart Growth Overlay, which permits multi-family use as of right at 27.6 units per acre — comfortably above the density floor — but is adopted under a different statute and expressly contemplates age-restricted projects within it.

  • § III-A.6: "The Smart Growth Overlay (SGO) District Program is established pursuant to Massachusetts G.L. c. 40R."
  • § III-A.6, 6.8: "Age Restrictions. … Any Project which includes age-restricted residential units shall comply with applicable federal, state and local fair housing laws"
  • § III-A.6: multi-family residential units at 27.6 units per acre
  • No reference to MGL c. 40A, § 3A anywhere in the bylaw

Establish which district Natick relies on for § 3A and whether EOHLC has determined the Town compliant. A c. 40R district can also serve as a § 3A district, but not merely by existing, and nothing in the published bylaw records the connection.

read from the Town's materials

§ III-MThe section that would answer the ADU statute has no text in it

§ III-M, Accessory Dwelling Unit, consists of its heading and one sentence directing the reader elsewhere. The Town's own table of contents marks it "PENDING Attorney General Approval". So the bylaw as published carries no accessory dwelling unit standards at all, and the Family Suite above is what remains in force.

  • § III-M in full: "Section III-M. Accessory Dwelling Unit / Please see June 9, 2025, Addendum (Section Pending Attorney General Approval)"
  • Table of contents: "M. Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) – PENDING Attorney General Approval III-75"

Confirm the status of the June 9, 2025 addendum with the Attorney General's Municipal Law Unit, and publish the approved text in the bylaw rather than as an addendum to it.

read from the Town's materials

§ IV-BThe only accessory-dwelling use requires a special permit in the single-family district

MGL c. 40A, § 3, as amended by the Affordable Homes Act, forbids a bylaw to require a special permit for a single accessory dwelling unit in a single-family residential district, and forbids requiring owner occupancy. Natick's only accessory-dwelling use is the Family Suite. The Use Regulation Schedule marks it "SP" in RS — Residential Single — and "N" everywhere else including RG, Residential General. § IV-B.aa then requires the dwelling to be "the primary residence of the owner", lets the permit granting authority require that residents "must be related to" the owner, and directs that the authority "shall specify by name(s) in its permit who is permitted to reside in the Family Suite". The definition confines a Family Suite to occupancy "by a resident who is related by blood, marriage or adoption to the owner". § IV-B.aa was last amended 9 May 2024, before the statutory provision took effect.

  • MGL c. 40A, § 3: "No zoning ordinance or by-law shall prohibit, unreasonably restrict or require a special permit or other discretionary zoning approval for the use of land or structures for a single accessory dwelling unit, or the rental thereof, in a single-family residential zoning district"
  • MGL c. 40A, § 3: "The use of land or structures for an accessory dwelling unit under this paragraph shall not require owner occupancy of either the accessory dwelling unit or the principal dwelling"
  • Use Regulation Schedule, row B1 Family Suite: RG=N, RM=N, RS=SP, and N in all eleven remaining districts (read by column alignment against the schedule header)
  • § IV-B.aa: "A family suite may be located in a dwelling in an RS district which is the primary residence of the owner"
  • § IV-B.aa(xiii): "The SPGA shall specify by name(s) in its permit who is permitted to reside in the Family Suite."
  • § 200: "Family Suite – An accessory dwelling unit, in a primary single family dwelling, for occupancy by a resident who is related by blood, marriage or adoption to the owner of the primary dwelling."

This is the finding to settle first. Until § III-M is in force the Family Suite is the operative rule, and on its face it does three things the statute names.

read from the Town's materials

Not published here yet 2

Ours, not Natick's: things this site does not carry yet.

§ III-A.2The Use Regulation Schedule is published only as a table in a PDF

The schedule that says which use is allowed in which district — the most consulted part of any zoning bylaw — exists only as a grid in the Town's PDF. It has deliberately not been transcribed here rather than transcribed unverified. The Family Suite finding above was read off it by aligning the row against the header by column position, which is sound for one row and is not a way to publish a schedule.

  • § III-A.2 Use Regulation Schedule, pages III-2 to III-8 of the Town's PDF

Transcribe it against the Town's Word original, which is what would make the schedule answerable to a question rather than readable on a page.

read from the Town's materials

The zoning map is not published here yet

The district pages read from the code alone. Until the layers are built, a reader cannot go from a place to the rules that govern it, which is half of what this site is for.

Ours.

found by comparison

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