WESTFIELD STATE UNIVERSITY
Exploring Floor Area Ratio
Town of Bedford
Alex Herchenreder
4/28/2015
Introduction
Project Brief
Literature Review
Methodology
Data Analysis
Recommendations
Bibliography
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Introduction
This paper will examine why Floor Area Ratio is this important. In addition the application of the
concept in relation to data gathered from the Town of Bedford will be completed. Floor Area
Ratio is an important concept that Planners should understand as well as its associated
requirements/restrictions that are used in conjunction to best shape the structure being
created.
The overarching theme is to promote economic development in the Town of Bedford. To have
steps taken to achieve this goal is to explore what Floor Area Ratio is and how it relates to other
parcel data as well as gather valuable data that can be utilized later by the planners to better
understand how these sample parcels are structured and a better decision can be made on how
to update the zoning in these areas to better suit new development.
Goals:
To achieve the goals laid out in the project description given to me by the town planners of
Bedford and in addition will do the following.




Gather Data about the sites given in the sample and organize into spreadsheet
Take Data and analyze against required guidelines meaning FAR, Landscape/Pervious
Land, Coverage, & Parking Requirements.
Conclusions can be made and then compile into a final report which will be used to
better update zoning laws in Industrial & Commercial Zoned Districts.
Make Recommendations to the Planning Office based on analysis completed.
Locus Map
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Location of Bedford, MA
Project Brief
The project brief that was given from the Town of Bedford Planning Department is as
following:
The Planning Board is in the process of reviewing the zoning that applies to the main
industrial/economic areas of Bedford, primarily for economic development reasons, i.e. to
strengthen the property tax base which helps to support local services. We already created a
new bylaw replacing the existing Industrial Mixed Use special permit, which was passed at
special town meeting on November 6, 2014. The next phase relates to the base zoning. One
thing we are looking at is the existing set of land uses in the areas being studied to see how they
might be clarified or adjusted to be more up to date. Equally important, we will explore
adjustments to various zoning dimensional rules, density and parking regulations and wish to
gauge their likely effects, including aesthetic and operational aspects of site design. There may
be opportunities at the same time to rationalize the pattern of zoning districts. The Board is also
conscious of traffic congestion as a major issue in town and therefore sees a need to connect
any intensification of development with efforts to manage transportation demand, ideally with
regional cooperation. Therefore this is a second area of research with which we will welcome
help. The Planning staff will assist the student in placing this research and data gathering into a
larger and more historic planning context for purposes of his senior project.
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A. Work relating to zoning amendments for industrial/ economic districts
1. Background regulatory documents:
Please familiarize yourself with the following, and ask if there are any terms you don’t
understand:
a. Zoning dimensional regulations –Table II from Bedford Zoning Bylaw (attached). The
zoning districts we are concerned with are Industrial B, Industrial Park A, Industrial
C, Commercial and General Business.
b. Zoning Map – available on Bedford website www.bedfordma.gov – from homepage,
pick GIS link (on left) and scroll down list of maps to the last one.
c. Zoning Bylaw Section 7.4 – Parking Regulations (note general intentions and how it
specifies number of parking spaces for various uses) – available on Town website, go
to Planning Department page and see last item under Links.
d.
2. Reconnaissance: review of work done so far:
Please look through the following work produced by Patrick Burns, former intern, which gathers
and analyzes data for the 3 geographic areas we are interested in (Route 3 Corridor, Wiggins
Avenue and Depot Area. This work mainly uses zoning, Assessor’s (property tax) records and GIS
‘Property Finder’ maps:
a. Maps of the 3 study areas, marked on extracts from Zoning Map (attached).
(Wiggins Ave and Depot Area are on one map, Route 3 corridor on the other)
b. Excel spreadsheets of data for each of the 3 areas (attached – file names including
“Dimensional Data OFFICIAL”).
c. Tables for each of the 3 areas (attached - names including “comparative”), showing
median, max and min parcel dimensions compared to zoning requirements.
d. Key to relevant 3 digit Land Use Codes from Assessor’s property type classification
(attached), to interpret this column in the spreadsheets.
There is also a set of spreadsheets highlighting non-conforming properties based on the above
information, produced by Catherine Perry, Assistant Planner (These are usually properties that
were built under earlier zoning rules and are allowed to continue):
e. Excel spreadsheets with names including “non-conforming dimensions” (attached).
Various briefing notes have already been produced for Planning Board discussions. These
include ones discussing height in the Route 3 area and parking generally:
f. Documents: “Notes on height in the Route 3 employment area” and “Comparative
parking requirements” (attached).
3. New research tasks:
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i.
Take highlighted data from Institution of Transportation Engineers Report “Parking
Generation” for 5 relevant categories of use (supplied - attached), and put it into a table
in a Word document. The uses can be the rows and the 2 types of statistic - Average
Peak Period Parking Demand and 85th Percentile - can be the columns. Give it a title.
ii.
Using the Town of Bedford’s online GIS ‘Property Finder’ maps, gather information on
existing numbers of parking spaces, by property. The zoomed-in maps show marked
spaces. It may not be realistic to cover the whole of the 3 areas; in that case, try to cover
a representative sample of properties from each area (in terms of property sizes,
apparent densities, zoning districts etc)., and favor conforming over non-conforming
ones. Copy each of the 3 “Dimensional Data OFFICIAL” spreadsheets, giving them a new
name, and add a column for “Existing parking”, with your data. Make notes of any
questions or unusual situations (these can be footnotes).
iii.
Using Google street maps/ Google earth, do some visual checking of our height data in
terms of number of stories. For the main spreadsheet column “Ht.(stories)”, only stories
that are fully above ground should be counted, but it would be useful to have a separate
note or column identifying situations where there are more stories on one side of a
building on a slope, or what appears to be an occupied basement level that is only
slightly below grade. Be sure to note anything that looks like more than 3 stories. Where
there are several buildings on one lot (e.g. some business parks on Crosby Drive), it
would be useful to have the height of each building; you could list them in a group of
cells in a different area of the spreadsheet, or describe them in a footnote.
iv.
To test the impacts of allowing more density in the town’s industrial areas, take two or
three “typical” property parcels (preferably ones in different zoning districts, that
conform to zoning but are fairly fully developed, and don’t contain wetlands which
would constrain development) and examine what might happen on site in response to
changes in the rules allowing more height, floor area and parking in consistent
combinations. For example:

Increase maximum height to 5 stories but keep maximum Floor Area Ratio (FAR) as it is
now (buildings could be replaced with narrower, taller ones freeing up space for
landscaping etc.)

Increase maximum FAR to .45 or some other allowed floor area designated by staff, with
corresponding increase in parking (under existing parking regulations) but no change in
maximum height (does this cause a space squeeze, suggesting a need for either a
reduction in the minimum lot landscaping requirement or structured parking to fit
everything on the property?)

Increase maximum FAR to .45 and increase office parking requirement to 3.5 spaces per
1000 square feet and increase maximum height to 4 stories (there may be a choice of
site design approaches)
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You are free to choose how to illustrate, and in what depth to examine, these scenarios.
We know that the area of landscaping is difficult to measure, so rough estimates will
suffice.
v.
Assist staff in documenting the land use/ development types that make up each of the
study areas, considering different ways of categorizing land uses, occupancy and
structures, and potentially drawing on several sources of information including
Assessor’s property records and data collected by the Town’s Economic Development
Coordinator.
Literature Review
Zoning
Zoning is a complex set of rules and regulations that provide structure to governing bodies
which will control physical development of land and the requested use for that land. The laws
will help weed out new or changes to existing developments that could be incompatible or
damaging in relation to the existing built/natural environment.
Having these laws and regulations in place will provide developers with regulations on
dimensions for the lot in question such as setback from the street backset from the next parcel
of land, etc. Some parcels of land will have special regulations in relation to the natural or
historical environment that will limit what and where can built on said parcel. (Wikipedia 2014)
Types of Zoning
“Incentive Zoning” among many other types of Zoning is exactly as it sounds. The type of Zoning
will give incentive to the developer to observe the guidelines and goals of the community while
giving some ground on the proposed project. The developer will give the community some
amenity to benefit the greater good with more encouragement from the town planning board
for completion of the project. Typically a density bonus is given on the property.
Allowing a Density Bonus does provide a positive outcome for both the community and the
developer a similar if not better result could be achieved by simply having better zoning
standards instead of providing the carrot on a stick for investors coming into the community to
bring new business. (Wiley & Sons 2006)
Floor Area Ratio
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Density can be viewed as a give and take aspect of planning. Meaning one could give a
bonus/incentive to developers but at the same time planners can use density as a regulatory
tool. “Density Controls are a good example, they have a fundamental impact= technical, social,
economic, even visual, and yet they allow a great diversity of form. The most effective way of
expressing a density limit is the floor area ratio that is the total floor area of the building
(adding all floor levels) divided by the ground area of the plot. Such ratios may run from 0.1 for
very open areas, to as much as 20.0 for very dense areas, and have distinct services…” (Lynch,
1984)
“”build a one story building. Let it cover 40 percent of the ground. That leaves 60 percent of
the land to be covered with a simple parking lot. No grass or tress or sidewalks…which explain
why an awful lot of cheap development looks the way it does.”” – Edge City, Joel Garreau
(Shoup 2005)
A phenomenon that is all across America that many developers will build said parcel as cheaply
as possible and turn and burn for a profit. Taking these eyesores, applying a concept such as
Floor Area Ratio or Building Coverage Ratio will make people think about how they could better
utilize their property.
Typically Floor Area Ratio is used by Developers, Designers, Real Estate Agents, and Planners to
regulate the above ground mass of a building that is a dimensional regulation usually combined
with lot size requirements, setbacks, height/story limits, maximum lot coverage, and open
space/natural space requirements. This tool is a flexible regulation when building because
having a given ratio, developers could have a design that takes up most of the lot; but another
design that could take up a portion of the lot with a height increase for example and it would
have the same ratio.
Density Bonus is related to the amount of development in a given area which then would
include an increase usually represented as a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) value. To calculate this value
is the total floor area of all buildings/structures on said zoned property divided by the total
square footage. The maximum allowable FAR value is multiplied by total lot area to determine
the total built square footage/total floor area of a building allowed on that site. To receive a
bonus a development could increase height of the building in exchange for creating more green
space or public space. The developers will gain a potential return on investment while the
community can better utilize the space. (Wiley & Sons 2006)
Floor Area Ratio is a positive tool that excels at providing guidelines to professionals in which to
create structures that will work cohesively in the built environment. Depending on the zoning
regulations for the particular parcel FAR can allow developers to create a building that could be
any number of stories within the set limits by the zoning bylaws or be one story that is within
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the limits of other regulations such as setback & backlot etc. Essentially FAR gives some
flexibility when combined with other dimensional tools.
Minimum FAR will suppress a building’s density whereas a Maximum or Large FAR will allow for
more density. The Minimum and Maximum Limits provide guidelines to developers/designers in
order to contain the building size and other dimensions. Each Town and City will have its own
guidelines/regulations of Floor Area Ratio; will have these regulations based on each zoning
district. The minimum and maximum limits on FAR boost its strength as a regulatory tool for
planners.
Cites will have many people interacting in a small area; these close quarters will bring about
negative externalities. Controlling the floor area ratio in many cities or highly developed areas
that have been developed having a maximum ratio will allow for greater control over
population density. These controls can reduce “various negative externalities: traffic
congestion, public facilities congestion, noise, insufficient sunlight exposure, etc. The market
equilibrium is not efficient with these externalities.” (Kono, 2008)
Granted floor area ratio is not the “solve all problems” solution to these issues. It can really only
control the building size market; this does have an effect on development because the
construction has to work with the regulation in order to complete the project. “…the FAR
regulation cannot adjust the population density directly. Actually, it can only control the total
floor space of a building without controlling the per-capita floor space consumption.” (Kono
2009) The ratio cannot control or regulate the side effects of having the new development in
the area such as increased traffic.
Another potential problem with having FAR regulations in place would be in places where lot
size regulations and FAR regulations are both present. “In Zones regulated by FAR, households
can choose their optimal floor space in the regulated buildings, where as in the Zones regulated
by lot size regulation, households cannot choose their optimal lot sizes….FAR regulations can
only control the population density indirectly, whereas lot size regulation can directly control
the population density.” (Kono, 2008)
“In areas with low-zoning FAR most buildings are detached houses, and because little mixed
land use is permitted by zoning environments are likely to be protected. But, if the allowable
floor space is excessively restricted, households may be disadvantaged. On the other hand, if
the limits on FAR are lax, landowners have more freedom to decide how to develop and how
much floor space to provide: consequently...” (Gao et. al 2006) Essentially Xiaolu Gao is
suggesting that minimum and maximum floor area ratios should be based on what is going to
be placed in said zones. If commercial buildings are going to be the main stay in a particular
zone then the FAR should match accordingly.
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Floor Area Ratio is a great tool that provides planners with some data from the development or
existing building with a quick value to see in relation to the zoning bylaws set in place if the
building is correctly meeting the requirements set in place. This value that can be cross checked
against the set limits previously established will allow planners to either accept the building
project or reject it. The trick with the limits set, is that they could have been created many
years ago when the town or city was changing in completely different way than say five or ten
years in the future. Thus. “To achieve optimality at all times, FAR regulation should be adjusted
continually or be reviewed periodically. Because planning requires looking into the future,
forecasting of such a time path is unavoidable.” (Joshi, 2009)
Methodology
To achieve the goals laid out in the project description given to me by the town planners of
Bedford I am to do the following. Gather Data about the sites given in the sample. Take Data
and analyze against required guidelines meaning FAR, Landscape/Pervious Land, Coverage, &
Parking Requirements. Conclusions can be made and then compile into a final report which will
be used to better update zoning laws in Industrial & Commercial Zoned Districts. (See Zoning
Map)
Spending much time on the Town of Bedford’s GIS portal, data was found through the
assessor’s card as well as the measurement tool function. This data was placed in an excel
spreadsheet along with some information that was given by the planners at the office. (See
Excel Table in Apendix)
Some data that could have some discrepancies is the parking spaces, handicap spaces, building
foot print, and lot area. The parking space & handicap spaces were not counted in person at the
actual site thus there will be some error in this value. Building foot print and total lot area are
both taken from the measure tool and will show some inconsistencies; assessor card
information was not as complete in the GIS portal thus review of this data should be
completed.
After gathering data related to the sites given in the sample in order to gain some data that
could be manipulated. Following steps in order to find out what the maximum square footage
allowed by the given Floor Area Ratio, Parking, and Undeveloped land requirements.
Total Lot Area
Subtract Land under 30 or 50% Landscape/Undeveloped
= Land area available for Surface Parking & Building Footprint
Surface Parking:
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Calculate Max Building Sq. Ft. by FAR (0.25/35/45) * Lot Area
= Parking Lot Sq. Ft.
Parking Lot Sq. Ft
1000
Then * 2.5 (Parking Space Requirement per 1000 Sq. Ft ((By Laws))
= Parking Spaces Required for Building Footprint
Building Footprint:
Calculate Max Building Sq. Ft. by FAR (0.25/35/45) * Lot Area
-Parking Lot Sq. Ft
= Lot area available for building footprint (Max Building Sq. Ft. under FAR)
One could use this available square footage to make a decision on building size. A designer who
was looking to create a new building using this information could use the maximum square
footage allowed under the given requirements to create different combinations of height and
foot print.
Data Analysis
Location
7 Oak Park
205 Burlington Road
Floorprint @ FAR 0.25 Existing Parking Req.
40293
55406
FAR 0.35 "
24176
35461
FAR 0.45 "
8059
15517
Floorprint @ FAR 0.25 Parking Req. 3.5
FAR 0.35 "2
24175
35467
1612
7540
Height Restriction of 3 stories in Industrial and Industrial Park districts which will affect how the
building footprint square footage can be manipulated.
Both locations under the 2.5 parking space per 1000sqft requirement can allow for some
change to be made at .25 and .35 FAR levels. Getting to the .45 FAR the building becomes
somewhat small unless it will become a 1 story building.
The footprint at the 3.5 parking spaces per 1000sqf will only work at the .25 FAR value and
having a .35 or .45 required FAR would not yield a proper building size as well as in the .45
column the parking lot size assuming surface parking would be going over the allowed building
footprint square footage.
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FAR 0.45 "3
-20951
-20383
Conclusions:
The height restriction of 3 stories in the Sampled Zoned Districts will not allow for the
maximum amount of designs to be created. Yes going up more than 3 stories can create its own
issues but it is a limiting factor in the analysis that could open up more options for design.
In addition to the height restriction the 50% required landscape/ undeveloped land in the
Industrial Zones is another constricting factor that is in the process of being changed. If this was
reduced to 30% this would allow for more space for parking/building footprint.
Further analysis should be completed on why on some sites there are excess parking spots and
why this was not addressed when creating the site. Extra parking is not a bad thing but it will
take away from space that could be used for the building foot print or to help boost the amount
of square footage that encompasses the undeveloped/landscape requirement.
Some thoughts for the future are that more time to allow for more scenarios to be such as
reducing the parking requirements to say 1.5 per 1000 sq. ft. or allowing for the reduced
undeveloped land percentage.
I would also like to try out all the calculations for all sites in order to have some idea about how
the square footage for each site to manipulate and possibly create new building designs that
could bring in more developers/investors to the town.
More time would be necessary to continue process outlined in the methods section to go
through all the variations (ex. Existing height to 5 stories or reduce undeveloped requirement to
30%)
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Bibliography
“Amending the Zoning Ordinance” APA. October 1958. Accessed March 4, 2015
https://www.planning.org/pas/at60/report115.htm
“Density” APA Quick Notes 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Accessed March 15, 2015
https://www.planning.org/pas/quicknotes/pdf/QN12.pdf
“Department of Housing & Community Development Adopting and Amending Zoning
Bylaws”.Common Wealth of Massachusetts. November 30, 2009. Accessed March 4, 2015
http://www.mass.gov/hed/docs/dhcd/cd/zoning/adoptingamending.pdf
“Department of Housing & Community Development Zoning Act Mass General Laws Chapter
40A”. Common Wealth of Massachusetts. November 30, 2009. Accessed March 4, 2015
http://www.mass.gov/hed/docs/dhcd/cd/zoning/zoningact.pdf
Gao. Xiaolu, Asami, Yasushi. Katsumata, Wataru. "Evaluating Land Use Restrictions Concerning
the Floor Area Ratio of Lots." Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy.
(2006): 515-532.
Kono, Tatushito, Kusum Joshi, Kirti, Morita Yuichi. “Floor Area Ratio and Urban Boundary
Regulation in Monocentric Cities with Traffic Congestion” Tohoku University
Kono, Tatsuhito, Takayuki Kaneko, and Hisa Morisugi. "Necessity of Minimum Floor Area Ratio
Regulation: A Second-Best Policy." Annual of Regional Science. October (2008).
Kusum Joshi, Kirti, and Tatsuhito Kono. "Optimitzation of Floor Area Ratio Regulation in a
Growing City." Regional Science and Urban Economics. (2009): 502-511.
“Planning Implementation Tools: Overlay Zoning”. Center for Land Use Education.
November,2005 Accessed March 4, 2015
ftp://ftp.wi.gov/doa/public/comprehensiveplans/ImplementationToolkit/Documents/OverlayZ
oning.pdf
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Lynch, Kevin. Site Planning. Camebridge: MIT Press, 1984.
Shoup, Donald. The High Cost of Parking. Chicago, Illinois: American Planning Association, 2005.
“Town of Bedford Zoning Bylaws” Common Wealth of Massachusetts. Annual Town Meeting
2014. Accessed March 4, 2015
http://www.bedfordma.gov/sites/bedfordma/files/file/file/zoning_bylaws_2014.pdf
"Zoning in the United States." Wikipedia. September 20, 2014. Accessed March 4, 2015.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoning_in_the_United_States.
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Appendix
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Excel Table (Some overlapping due to large size)
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Zoning Map of Bedford for reference
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