A First Look at DTF’s Next Car-Free Apartment Building

The Project consists of renovating an existing four-story building with a mixed-use redevelopment
including ground floor retail uses and residential units. No parking is proposed; the Project is
seeking a special permit to provide fewer parking spaces than required by zoning. The Project is in
the Central Business District and is within a five-minute walk (0.2 mile) from Framingham Station.
The existing, proposed, and revised building programs are summarized below:

The City of Framingham Zoning By-Law establishes requirements for off-street parking spaces for
new developments in the Central Business District. Off-street vehicle parking requirements for the
Proposed Project (11 units) and Revised Project (16 units) are summarized below per (Zoning
Bylaws Section II I5 (a1i):

No additional parking is required by zoning for the Revised Project. The Project will provide no
vehicle parking on-site for the residential units. The Project is coordinating with the City to lease
spaces in the Hollis Court parking lot. Secure bicycle racks will be provided behind the building;
bicycle parking will be provided per zoning requirements (two spaces for every 10 units).

The Project is in proximity to a rail transit station and will request a parking reduction special
permit. The addition of four units will add approximately one additional vehicle trip to the adjacent
streets during the a.m. and p.m. peak hours (one entering during the a.m. peak hour and one exiting
during the p.m. peak hour). It is anticipated that these trips will have minimal additional impact on
the safety or operations of the area roadways.

1 thought on “A First Look at DTF’s Next Car-Free Apartment Building

  1. You realize that actually poor people do not own cars. That’s a really good way to make sure apartments go to the actually poor. Too bad you can’t tie their ability to rent a place with no parking, to not actually owning a vehicle. all that is going to happen here, is more spaces on the street will be taken up, making it harder for the few people who actually go to downtown much, much harder. I drive by it frequently, and there are never “lots of empty spaces”.

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