Zoning Reform Impact Tracker

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 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 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!