The first community meeting of the ad hoc committee studying the proliferation of larger houses on smaller building lots provided a showcase for just how challenging this issue may prove to address.
The June 9 meeting of the Large House Review Study Committee drew nearly 100 attendees, roughly half in person at Powers Hall and the other half via Zoom. They came to answer a few questions the committee was asking, most pointedly: “Do you think the town should be regulating/moderating house size differently than it currently does?”
“We have to rely on you to let us know what your concerns are and what ideas you may have on this issue,” committee co-chair Moe Handel told the attendees at the outset of the meeting.
The 14-member group’s “study area” is restricted to the Single Residence B and General Residence zoning districts, the residential zones with parcels in the 10,000-square-foot range. The SRB district is home to nearly 7,000 of the town’s 8,414 single-family houses, so the committee’s scope is quite broad.
The smaller and older parcels in SRB are where the town’s teardown activity has been largely taking place. “Needham is essentially built out,” Handel noted. “Almost all new homes are built on lots created by the demolition of existing homes.”
Handel said since convening in January the committee has discussed “a series of questions and issues from a gazillion different perspectives.”
“Some of those perspectives are aligned with each other, and some of them conflict,” he said. “Our job is to try to figure out what people in Needham want over this issue, and to come up with ways to make sure that that happens.”
What IS the problem?
There is no doubt that teardowns produce larger houses. From 2014 to 2021, the 720 parcels that were completely rebuilt after teardowns resulted in an average size increase of 2,931 square feet, according to a review done for the town’s Climate Action Plan Committee, which was studying the environmental impacts of the activity.
There is less clarity on how that’s a problem and, if so, whether there is a regulatory solution.
The attendees at Powers Hall spent nearly an hour in small group discussions moderated by committee members. The 40 or so Zoom attendees provided their thoughts serially. When committee members offered their summaries of the various separate discussions, a few common themes emerged:
HOUSES TOO LARGE FOR THEIR LOTS
There seemed to be near unanimous agreement that any new zoning should try to prevent the construction of houses that are too big for their lots. “I think in general, folks felt that the large house versus the small lot is a problem that the town needs to deal with,” committee member Ed Quinlan noted in reporting back from his group.
TRY TO SAVE THE STARTER HOMES
Nearly every group seemed to agree that teardowns are dramatically limiting the supply of smaller, starter homes in Needham. This is the housing stock that makes it possible for young families to buy the proverbial fixer-upper, or for empty nesters who wish to remain in Needham after raising their families to step down from a larger home.
LARGER NEW HOMES MAKE PROBLEMS FOR NEIGHBORS
There were many anecdotes of longtime residents who reported “never happened before” experiences of flooding or other impacts they felt were caused by the construction of large houses next door or nearby.
LOSS OF MATURE TREES
Multiple attendees bemoaned the loss of trees, including healthy, mature trees. This can occur when lots are clear cut, or nearby trees have their root systems damaged so extensively that they eventually die.
It was noted that the town has formed two other ad hoc committees, one charged with addressing stormwater issues and another considering possible regulations related to trees. Attendees suggested the large house committee coordinate with those other two committees on overlapping issues.
Attendees also expressed worries about possible negative impacts from attempting to regulate house size and urged the committee to be wary of unintended consequences that could result from seemingly well-intended regulatory changes.
LOSS OF VALUE OF SMALLER HOMES
There was considerable concern expressed that owners of older, smaller houses would get a far lesser financial return when they sold their homes if they had less potential to be converted to larger new homes.
AESTHETICS ARE NONE OF THE TOWN’S BUSINESS
While some attendees expressed their distaste for certain prevailing architectural offerings, there seemed to be little appetite for addressing this via zoning. “Aesthetics are going to change over time,” committee member Marianne Cooley said in reporting on her group’s discussion. “So that’s not where people were focused.”
And resident Louise Miller amplified that point when the meeting was opened to general comment. “I don’t think we can regulate taste,” she said.
Miller also suggested the committee try to answer a basic question: “Which problem is it that we want this committee to solve?”
The committee will continue to meet over the summer and will process the comments received at the meeting. The town is also conducting an online survey for all residents through June 16, “seeking feedback from Needham residents on the large house/teardown issue.” It had received 762 responses by the end of business on June 11.
The committee will report back on what it has learned at a second community meeting in September.
How did we get here?
This same issue was addressed less than a decade ago by an earlier ad hoc committee, the Large House Study Committee. It was convened in 2014 and spent three years focused on issues of house design and neighborhood character, but less overtly on reducing the size of new homes. Its work culminated in the adoption of zoning bylaw changes at the May 2017 Town Meeting.
In the summer of 2023, resident Joe Matthews, now a member of the large house committee, tried to convince the Planning Board that the prior committee had not sufficiently addressed the issue of teardowns. He requested the board take steps to address what he saw as numerous problems related to the teardown activity — especially its role in making Needham increasingly unaffordable to all but a small percentage of potential new residents.
The Planning Board deferred action, so Matthews brought a citizens petition to Town Meeting in May 2024. That petition eventually led to the creation of the new ad hoc committee.
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