"This is really the sort of the first step on a long, long path toward determining whether or not to adopt 40R officially," said Zachary Fleury of the Community Development Office. Feury gave a presentation to the Planning Board last month.
The state instituted so-called Smart Growth Zoning about 15 years ago to incentivize developers to largely utilize existing structures to create market-rate housing that also provided a percentage of affordable-housing units and space for retail or commerce.
The statute provides certain incentives for developers — such as access to capital and lower predevelopment risk for permitting — while also giving municipalities funding, or "density bonus," to acknowledge the impact of increased housing and traffic.