Town of Richmond, MA GIS Viewer

The purpose of the design overlay district is to protect developed areas of the City characterized by uniqueness of established neighborhood character, architectural coherence and harmony, or vulnerability to deterioration. This is accomplished through controlling the patterns of architectural design and development in residential and commercial neighborhoods, which may include new construction, alterations, and demolitions. Only exterior changes to buildings, structures, and sites within public view may be regulated. Design Overlay Districts are also used for GIS mapping and analysis.

Contains information about the type and status of the BZA case, as well as hyperlinks to the appropriate documentation on the city's website.

Zoning is a device of land use regulation used by the City of Richmond and other local governments to designate permitted uses of land based on mapped zoning districts. Districts may be regulated by land uses (residential, commercial, etc.), and/or it may be regulated by features (building height, lot coverage, etc.). To be used for analysis and cartographic display of Zoning data.

Represents the following types of projects: Rezoning, Conditional Rezoning, Plan of Development, Plan of Development Amendment, Special Use Permits, Special Use Permit Amendment, Institutional Master Plan, Preliminary Community Unit Plan, Preliminary Unit Plan Amendment, Preliminary Subdivision, Conditional Use Permit, Conditional Use Permit Amendment.

Street Frontage uses linear features which are digitized along the inner edge of sidewalks, coincident with the frontage of either parcel properties or building footprints. Instead of creating two separate feature classes, the Street Frontage features contain a “Frontage Type” attribute field, which is used to identify the street frontage zoning for the feature; Street-Oriented Commercial Frontage, or Priority Street. While a single linear feature cannot be attributed as both zoning types, two separate street frontage features may be overlapping (duplicated features with alternate FrontageType attributes), such that locations will show/map both zoning types exists along a street frontage. GIS mapping that shows only one of the two FrontageTypes exists means that there are not coincident features. Street-Oriented Commercial Frontage: Buildings on streets that are designated as Street-Oriented Commercial must have ground floor commercial uses, which activate the street edge and work toward creating a more walkable environment. Streets which are significant to a given property and the larger neighborhood, where buildings are required to face and engage with the street through fenestration and siting requirements.

To define/describe the extent and boundaries of the Old and Historic Districts for use in GIS. This GIS layer is used to relate properties (hence addresses) to the correlating City Historic District/Site for use in the City's data warehousing and address systems. The City Zoning division regularly researches to see if addresses/properties are within these districts, as they are subject to zoning ordinances.

Contains information about the type and status of the Special Use Permit, as well as hyperlinks to the appropriate documentation on the city's website.Richmond's version of the special use permit process may authorize any use at any location subject to specified conditions. This power is unique to Richmond and should not be confused with the traditional special use permit as used in other jurisdictions. Upon the request of Council, the General Assembly in 1960 revised the Charter to give Council a new broad power to grant "special uses" unlimited by name of use, district classification, or detailed standards. This has been interpreted to mean that Council may permit "any use - anywhere under any conditions", so long as the general welfare, safety, health, congestion in streets and other vague and general applications of the police power are recognized.

Plan of Development Overlay Districts are enabled by Richmond City Code Section 30-950.

The intent is to “provide a means whereby City Council may establish overlay districts to determine compliance with the technical requirements of [the zoning ordinance] as well as compliance with site planning criteria in this chapter such as the relationship among the various elements of the plan (preservation of landscape, arrangement of buildings and spaces, functions of yards and spaces, parking and circulation), the relationship to the arrangement of abutting sites and to minimize potential adverse influences on and ensure compatibility with nearby uses”.Within each Plan of Development Overlay District, construction of any new building or any addition to an existing building when such new building or addition occupies more than 1,000 square feet of lot coverage will be required to undergo a Plan of Development review.Section 30-950.4 establishes specific districts. The Westover Hills Boulevard/Forest Hill Avenue Plan of Development Overlay District POD-1 does not have any particular requirements and new buildings and additions will be evaluated according to the criteria listed above. The Arts District Station/Monroe Ward POD Overlay District POD-2was adopted as a recommendation of the Pulse Corridor Plan, and all new buildings or additions in this district will be evaluated according to the six form elements outlined in the plan. Please refer to the Arts District/Monroe Ward POD Overlay Design Guidelines for more information about this process.

Contains information about the type and status of the Zoning Confirmation Letter, as well as hyperlinks to the appropriate documentation on the city's website.