This layer represents Zoning District boundaries indicating geographic areas subject to specific zoning guidelines. Developed and maintained by the Planning Department GIS in accordance with the Boston Zoning Code.

TO VIEW A GLOSSARY OF TERMS FOR THE DIRECTORY - CLICK HERE

WHAT IS THIS TRACKER FOR?

The City of Boston is committed to increasing transparency in the processes around the Zoning Board of Appeal (ZBA). The Inspectional Services Department (ISD) at the City is tasked with ensuring compliance with the zoning code. If an application for a permit is refused because of a zoning violation, applicants are able to appeal the decision to the ZBA and ask for an exception, sometimes known as a “variance.” If the ZBA grants relief, then the appellant is able to continue with the process of obtaining a permit.

In order to provide greater transparency in the ZBA process, the City of Boston Zoning Board of Appeal tracker is now available on Analyze Boston. Each record in this tracker represents an appeal of a denied permit application; the original permit application is known as the “parent application.” To find out more information about the original permit application, visit our Permit Finder tool. To view a map of this data, visit our ZBA Tracker Map Tool.

To learn more about the ZBA process and how to file an appeal, visit our website.

WHAT DOES EACH STATUS MEAN?

Appeal Submitted - indicates that an appeal of a zoning refusal was successfully submitted into ISD’s tracking system, either in-person at ISD (1010 Massachusetts Ave.) or through the online application portal.

More Information:

• For detailed information on how to file an appeal, see this page on the ISD website.

Next steps:

• The appeal will undergo an initial review by City staff to ensure that all necessary information and documentation has been included.
• The appellant must pay a fee.

Community Process - indicates that City staff have completed their review and signed off for the appeal process to move onto getting community feedback.

Contact Information:

• Use the link below to find the Neighborhood Liaison from the Office of Neighborhood Services for the application’s location.

Next steps:

• The appellant will work with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services to engage with people who own adjacent properties, members of the local community, and other relevant stakeholders.

• Depending on the type of project, the Boston Planning and Development Agency may also conduct a review.

Hearing Scheduled - indicates that the appeal has been scheduled for a committee or subcommittee meeting of the ZBA. For this to take place, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services has notified ISD that the appellant has adequately engaged with the community that would be affected, should the zoning relief be granted.

Attendance Information:

• View a schedule of hearings at the ZBA webpage. Select an Upcoming Hearing to find the list of topics and how to attend.

Next steps:

• The appellant will attend the hearing in person (or through the virtual meeting). The appellant will provide the ZBA with reasons why an exception or variance to the zoning code should be granted and answer any questions from the ZBA.

• At the hearing, members of the public will be able to testify in support or against the appeal.

• The ZBA will discuss the appeal and vote to approve or deny.

Alternatively:

• The appellant can request a deferral; if allowed by the ZBA, during the hearing the appeal will receive a new hearing date.

• The appellant can withdraw the application; if allowed by the ZBA, it can be withdrawn without prejudice.

Hearing Rescheduled - indicates that the appeal’s scheduled committee meeting has been changed. This can happen for several reasons. For example, the appellant can request a deferral if they need more time to complete or update plans, or the board can defer an appeal if a quorum isn’t present (perhaps due to a recusal). A request for deferral is approved by the board, which also selects a new hearing date.

Next steps:

• Same as Hearing Scheduled above.

Hearing Concluded - indicates that the hearing has taken place. The appeal could have been approved, denied, deferred, or withdrawn, with or without additional requirements.

Additional Information:

• Meeting minutes from each committee meeting are available to download from the ZBA webpage.

Next steps:

• The ZBA Executive Secretary finalizes the Board’s decision in writing or the appellant’s attorney submits a finalized decision for ISD Legal Team review.

ZBA Decision Finalized - indicates the date on the ZBA’s written decision letter. The decision is listed under the ‘result’ field.

Next steps:

• Neighboring property owners are notified of the decision shortly after this date

• Beginning on the Final Decision Date, neighboring property owners and other involved parties who disagree with the ZBA’s decision have twenty days to file an appeal in Suffolk County Superior Court or Boston Housing Court. (For detailed information on the Zoning Commission and appeal process, please refer to Chapter 665 of the Acts of 1956, available here)

Appeal Closed - indicates the appeal’s outcome has been finalized and the twenty day Appeal period has ended.

Next steps:

• Depending on the ZBA decision, the appellant may or may not be able to continue the process for seeking the permit for which zoning relief was requested.

• If the ZBA approved or sustained with proviso, the appellant must take additional steps before continuing the permitting process.

WHAT DOES EACH RESULT MEAN?

Approved - means the zoning relief requested has been granted.

Approved with Proviso - means the zoning relief requested has been granted, with some conditions that must be fulfilled before the permitting process can continue. These conditions will be detailed in the written decision of the ZBA. Examples of such conditions could include: having the Boston Planning and Development Agency review updated plans; submitting more detailed plans; or obtaining additional engineer reports.

Denied - means the zoning relief requested was not granted. The appellant must wait a year before submitting a new appeal on a project for the same site.

Denied without Prejudice - means the zoning relief requested was not granted. However, the appellant only has to wait thirty days before submitting an appeal on a new project at the same site.

Withdrawn - means the appellant has chosen to remove the appeal from the ZBA’s consideration. The appellant does not have to wait a year to appeal the same zoning violations.

Note: If there is no result listed, it means that the ZBA has not issued its final written decision on the appeal. This may be the case even for appeals that have been heard by the ZBA.

HOW DO I USE THIS TRACKER?

This tracker is designed for members of the public and City of Boston employees to be able to quickly search for a specific appeal that has been submitted to the ZBA, or to search for appeals based on criteria such as location or primary contact, in order to identify the status of the appeal.

Below, under the "Data and Resources" header, you will see the "Zoning Board of Appeal Tracker" dataset:

• To look at the directory - click the "Preview" button and you will be taken to a spreadsheet-like view of the directory data.

• To expand the number of applications available to scroll through, click the "Show _ Entries" drop down at the top left of the data table and select your desired number. Alternatively, you can scroll to the bottom right of the dataset and select your desired page number.

• To search the tracker - use the search box to the top right of the data table to search for any keyword in the dataset. For example, if you are looking for a certain contact, type the name into the search box and see what comes back.

• To filter the data, click the blue "Add Filter" link at the top left of the data table, select the field you would like to filter on, and select the corresponding value of that field that you would like to display. For example - if you wanted to show applications for properties in Charlestown, you would click "Add Filter", select the "city" field, and select "Charlestown". You can add multiple filters.

• To sort the data based on a specific field, click the arrows next to the field name to sort in either ascending or descending order.

• To hide columns that aren't relevant to you, click the blue "Hide/Unhide Columns" button at the top right of the data table, and click on the desired column names. Hidden column names will be highlighted in white. To unhide a column, simply click it again.

• The Data Dictionary - which explains what each field means and what the values of each field mean - is available as a table below the directory, and is also

This layer represents City of Boston Zoning Subdistrict boundaries indicating geographic areas subject to specific zoning guidelines. Developed and maintained by the Planning Department GIS in accordance with the Boston Zoning Code.

This map displays 2018 zoning in the area around Dorchester Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. This zoning information is useful to the PLAN South Boston Dorchester Avenue report, which contains the history, current conditions, outreach initiatives, goals, and objectives of a proposed plan to create a new mixed-use urban district in Boston, Massachusetts.This map is intended for use in the Storify a planning report tutorial, which details the process of creating a story in ArcGIS StoryMaps for the plan. The story includes maps and a scene that showcase the proposed district. In particular, this map is used in a web app that compares current zoning to the plan's proposed zoning. The plan itself was created by the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA).

This map displays data from chapters 1 through 4 of the PLAN South Boston Dorchester Avenue report, which contains the history, current conditions, outreach initiatives, goals, and objectives of a proposed plan to create a new mixed-use urban district in Boston, Massachusetts. The map contains four layers:Study AreaFuture DevelopmentsParcelsZoningThis map is intended for use in the Storify a planning report tutorial, which details the process of creating a story in ArcGIS StoryMaps for the plan. The story includes maps and a scene that showcase the proposed district. The plan itself was created by the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA).

TO VIEW A FULL LIST OF THE DATA AND DEFINITIONS CLICK HERE

WHAT IS THIS TRACKER FOR?

The Zoning Reform Impact Tracker (ZRIT) is intended to help assess the impact of changes to the Zoning Code and to identify trends in permitting and requests for zoning relief. This pilot version of the Tracker is for the PLAN: Mattapan area. After five years of community meetings and feedback, PLAN: Mattapan recommended updated zoning for existing mixed-use and commercial centers. To best implement those recommendations, these areas later became Squares + Streets districts.

This dataset provides the City’s first-ever measures of:

• By-right development (projects that do not require zoning relief) as a proportion of total development
• Incomplete or abandoned projects, in order to better understand challenges in the zoning and development process
• Proposed and permitted internal accessory dwelling units (ADUs)
• The most common dimensional zoning violations by permit
• The time that projects take to go through the Zoning Board of Appeal, a regulatory body that grants or denies zoning relief
• The time between applying for a building permit and when the building permit is issued
  • Note: Building permits are issued by the Inspectional Services Department, but timelines to issuance are impacted by varied and complex development requirements, including additional reviews by the Parks Department, the Landmarks Commission, and the Planning Department, among other entities.

Each Tracker record represents an application for a type of building permit submitted on or after January 1, 2018, including: substantial changes and repairs to the structure (“Alteration”), a change to a previously submitted application (“Amendment”), certain changes to an outdoor portion of land (“UOP”), or new construction (“Erect”).

To learn more about a specific permit application or to take action on your active permit application, please use the tools linked below:

• ISD Permitting Portal - apply for and manage permits
• Permit Finder tool- search for and view detailed permit status information
• ZBA Tracker Map Tool - search for and view detailed appeal status information

Additional resources & reports:

• Zoning Board of Appeal Reports
• Reforming the Boston Zoning Code by Sara Bronin

Contact:

• Planning Department - rachel.elmkies@boston.gov
• Inspectional Services Department - ISD@boston.gov

Not sure how to use this dataset or what the terms below mean? Click here!

To access parcel information:Enter an address or zoom in by using the +/- tools or your mouse scroll wheel. Parcels will draw when zoomed in.Click on a parcel to display a popup with information about that parcel.Click the "Basemap" button to display background aerial imagery.From the "Layers" button you can turn map features on and off.Complete Help (PDF)Parcel Legend:Full Map LegendAbout this ViewerThis viewer displays land property boundaries from assessor parcel maps across Massachusetts. Each parcel is linked to selected descriptive information from assessor databases. Data for all 351 cities and towns are the standardized "Level 3" tax parcels served by MassGIS. More details ...Read about and download parcel dataUpdatesV 1.1: Added 'Layers' tab. (2018)V 1.2: Reformatted popup to use HTML table for columns and made address larger. (Jan 2019)V 1.3: Added 'Download Parcel Data by City/Town' option to list of layers. This box is checked off by default but when activated a user can identify anywhere and download data for that entire city/town, except Boston. (March 14, 2019)V 1.4: Data for Boston is included in the "Level 3" standardized parcels layer. (August 10, 2020)V 1.4 MassGIS, EOTSS 2021

This data set contains a series of administrative geographies utilized by the City of Boston, including: traditional neighborhoods defined by the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA Neighborhood Statistical Areas, BPDA Planning Districts); election board regions (City Council Districts, Election Precincts, Election Wards); and districts for City operations (Fire Districts, ISD Neighborhoods, Police Districts, Public Works Districts, and ZIP Codes). For each we include a shape file with unique identifiers. These geographic files were obtained from the City of Boston Department of Innovation and Technology’s Analyze Boston data hub site: https://data.boston.gov/. Information pertaining to these files can be found in the most recent documentation for the "Geographical Infrastructure for the City of Boston." Note: These geographies are the most recent updated versions at the time of the release of the most recent Geographical Infrastructure for the City of Boston.

The MassGIS zoning datalayer represents the boundaries of municipal zoning districts. Because zoning is established at the town level, there is no standard district classification across the state. While districts in different towns may have similar or even identical names, their definitions are often quite different. Generalized codes have been added to make these data useful for regional display. A related table contains detailed information about the districts such as setbacks or text descriptions from each town’s zoning bylaws. Data are available for all communities. (Only primary district information is available for the City of Boston, not additional infomation for its bylaws.) MassGIS stores the data in a statewide ArcSDE layer named ZONING_POLY. Zoning district boundaries change frequently and MassGIS currently has no formal process in place to regularly update these coverages. These data should therefore be used for regional analysis only and not as official zoning maps. The town’s own official zoning map and current copy of the by-law should be considered as the final word on zoning boundary questions or issues. In August, 2007, data were updated for these 93 towns: Adams, Agawam, Amherst, Aquinnah, Ashburnham, Ashby, Athol, Ayer, Belchertown, Billerica, Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Chelmsford, Cheshire, Chester, Chesterfield, Chicopee, Chilmark, Clarksburg, Clinton, Cummington, Dalton, Dennis, East Longmeadow, Edgartown, Egremont, Falmouth, Fitchburg, Gardner, Georgetown, Gosnold, Granby, Great Barrington, Groton, Hadley, Hampden, Harvard, Hatfield, Hubbardston, Huntington, Lancaster, Lanesborough, Lawrence, Lee, Lenox, Leominster, Lowell, Ludlow, Lunenburg, Mashpee, Monson, Monterey, New Ashford, North Adams, Northampton, Oak Bluffs, Otis, Palmer, Petersham, Phillipston, Pittsfield, Richmond, Rowley, Royalston, Russell, Salisbury, Sandisfield, Sheffield, Shirley, South Hadley, Southampton, Southwick, Sterling, Stockbridge, Templeton, Tisbury, Townsend, Truro, Ware, Washington, Wellfleet, West Springfield, West Stockbridge, West Tisbury, Westfield, Westminster, Wilbraham, Williamsburg, Williamstown, Winchendon, Worthington, and Yarmouth. Note: Complete metadata is available within the downloaded zip file. This metadata can be viewed with ESRI ArcGIS software, and can be exported to FGDC and ISO metadata formats.

January 2002