Stoughton City Zoning Code

The visible or otherwise apparent intention of an owner to discontinue a nonconforming use of a building or premises; or the removal of the characteristic equipment or furnishing used in the performance of the nonconforming use, without its replacement by similar equipment or furnishings; or the replacement of the nonconforming use or building by a conforming use or building.

A self-contained housing unit, inclusive of sleeping, cooking and sanitary facilities on the same lot as a principal dwelling, subject to otherwise applicable dimensional and parking requirements, that: i) maintains a separate entrance, either directly from the outside or through an entry hall or corridor shared with the principal dwelling sufficient to meet the requirements of the state building code for safe egress; ii) is not larger in gross floor area than 1/2 the gross floor area of the principal dwelling or 900 square feet, whichever is smaller; and iii) is subject to such additional restrictions as stated in this code, including, but not limited to, additional size restrictions and restrictions or prohibitions on short term rental unit, as defined in MGL Chapter 64G, § 1; Therefore, the planning board or any other authority in the Town of Stoughton shall not unreasonably restrict the creation or rental of an accessory dwelling unit provided that is not offered as a short-term rental unit.

Shall include and be defined as follows:

Any construction, reconstruction, or other action resulting in a change in the structural parts or height, number of stories or exits, size, use or location of a building or other structure.

As defined by the State Building Code.

Any area in a dwelling unit with a door and a closet and at least 80 square feet which is or could be used for the provisions of private sleeping accommodations for residents of the premises, whether such area is designated as a bedroom, guestroom, maid's room, dressing room, den, study, library, or by another name. Any room intended for regular use by all occupants of the dwelling unit such as living room, dining room, or kitchen shall not be considered a bedroom, nor shall bathrooms, halls or closets having no horizontal dimensions over six feet.

The Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Stoughton, Massachusetts.

A combination of any materials, whether portable or fixed, having a roof, and enclosed within exterior walls or firewalls, built to form a structure for the shelter of persons, animals or property. For the purposes of this definition, "roof" shall include an awning or any similar covering, whether or not permanent in nature.

The aggregate of the maximum horizontal cross-section area of all buildings on a lot exclusive of cornices, eaves, gutters, chimneys, unenclosed porches, bay windows, balconies, and terraces, expressed as a percentage of total lot area.

The line parallel to the street line at a distance therefrom equal to the depth of the front yard required for the zoning district in which the lot is located; except in the case of a rear lot, the building line shall be that line to the rear of the rear property line of the front lot, and it shall not be less than the depth of the required front yard for the zoning district in which the lot is located.

A detached building, the use of which is customarily incidental and subordinate to that of the principal building, and which is located on the same lot as that occupied by the principal building.

A building having any portion of one or more walls in common with adjoining buildings.

A building having open space on all sides.

A building in which is conducted the principal use of the lot on which it is located.

A building which has one party wall in common with an adjacent building.

A business establishment which does not offer a product or merchandise for sale to the public but offers a professional service to the public. However, personal services, such as barber and beauty shops, and repair shops, such as radio, television, and automotive, are not to be included in the definition of business offices.

A folding structure, mounted on wheels and designed for travel, creation, and vacation use.

A child care center as that term is defined in MGL c. 15D, § 1A.

Land in a subdivision not required for lots which shall be set aside for recreation, park purposes, or retained as natural woodland, accessible from all sections of the development, designed and intended for the use and enjoyment of the residents within the subdivision or community.

Premises owned and operated by a governmental or chartered nonprofit organization, but not including fraternal, sports, or similar membership organizations. A community facility shall include a multifamily senior housing ("MFSH") use, provided the property at which the MFSH use is conducted shall be owned and operated by Town, including the Stoughton Housing Authority, and provided the Board of Selectmen voted to approve the use of the property for an MFSH use by majority vote before the use commences and provided that residency within the MFSH use shall be restricted to persons 60 years of age or older and low income handicapped persons who otherwise meet the eligibility criteria as provided in MGL c. 121B and the regulations promulgated thereunder and provided that preferences to Stoughton residents and veterans may be afforded; further provided, however, that the MFSH use shall be developed, permitted, rented and operated in a manner so that all of the units shall be eligible for inclusion in the Town's subsidized housing inventory as maintained by the Department of Housing and Community Development. An MFSH use conducted by the Town, including by the Stoughton Housing Authority, may be combined with municipal office uses, provided that said office uses are owned and operated by the Town, including the Stoughton Housing Authority.

An open space on a lot or in a garage used for parking motor vehicles, the dimensions of which are not less than eight feet wide by 18 feet long and to which there is an access from a street, plus not less than 81 square feet of access and maneuvering space, whether inside or outside a structure, for exclusive use as a parking stall for one motor vehicle, and further being surfaced with a bituminous or cement concrete pavement.

Uses including but not limited to shared co-working offices spaces, advertising, architecture, arts and crafts, design, fashion, film, video, photography, music, performing arts, publishing, research and development, software, computer games, electronic publishing, and TV/radio.

A zoning district as established by Section 2.0 of this bylaw.

A storage bin or cube for the deposit of used clothing, books, or other goods intended for distribution by charitable entities.

A business establishment that includes service that is provided from a drive-up or drive-through window or other similar arrangement that allows the service of a patron while the patron remains in a vehicle, whether parked or live parked. The term shall include eating establishments and service establishments such as banks, dry cleaners, pharmacies, photo shops and the like and automotive service stations and gasoline stations and the like.

A paved or unpaved area located on a lot built for access to a garage, or off-street parking or loading space.

A privately or publicly owned permanent structure containing a dwelling unit or dwelling units. The term "dwelling" shall not include hotel, lodging house, hospital, membership club, trailer or dormitory.

A facility equipped with a compatible cable such as J-1772, for the recharging of the batteries of motor vehicles.

Services provided by public utility or governmental agencies through erection, construction, alteration, or maintenance of underground or overhead gas, electrical, steam, or water transmission or distribution systems and collection, communication, supply, or disposal systems, excluding power plants or transfer stations. Facilities necessary for the provisions of essential services include poles, wires, mains, drains, sewers, pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, hydrants, and other similar equipment and accessories in connection therewith. Specifically excluded from this definition are buildings necessary for the furnishing of adequate service by such public utility or governmental agencies for the public health, safety and general welfare.

One or more persons, including domestic employees, occupying a dwelling unit and living as a single, nonprofit housekeeping unit, provided that a group of five or more persons not related by blood or marriage shall not be deemed to constitute a family.

An accessory use as defined in MGL c. 15D, § 1A.

An accessory use as defined in MGL c. 15D, § 1A.

Food which is (a) primarily intended for immediate consumption; (b) available upon a short waiting time; (c) packaged or presented in such a manner that it can be readily eaten outside the premises where it is sold; (d) served on disposables or in paper containers, consumed with plastic utensils; and (e) of a self-service nature, that is, no waitresses or waiters are involved. Patrons place their order at a counter or remotely and take it to a table on the premises or leave the premises.

An establishment whose primary business is the sale of fast order food for consumption on or off the premises.

The following terms shall have the following definitions for the purposes of Section 7.1:

In the FPOD, Section 9.2, the following definitions shall apply:

The sum of the areas of the several floors of a building, measured from the exterior faces of the walls. It does not include cellars, unenclosed porches or attics not used for human occupancy or any floor space in accessory buildings or in the main building intended and designed for the parking of motor vehicles in order to meet the parking requirements of this bylaw, or any such floor space intended and designed for accessory heating and ventilating equipment.

Facility for the conducting of funerals and related activities such as embalming.

Shop for lawn mower or small appliance repair, upholstery or furniture repair, bicycle repair person, printer, blacksmith, builder, carpenter, caterer, electrician, lawn mower service person, mason, painter, plumber or roofer.

Businesses that produce/sell goods, create prototypes, advance research, and/or provide services related to renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean technology, and, eco-friendly products.

A structure and establishment for the growing of plants for wholesale or retail sale, otherwise not exempt as an agricultural use pursuant to MGL c. 40A, § 3.

The height of a building shall be measured as set forth in the State Building Code.

A nonprofit corporation devoted to the preservation of historical matters.

An accessory use which by custom has been carried on entirely within a dwelling unit or a lawful accessory building.

A building providing twenty-four-hour in-patient services for the diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment and care of human ailments.

A building or any part of a building containing rooming units without individual cooking facilities for transient occupancy and having a common entrance or entrances, including an inn, motel, motor inn and tourist court, but not including a boarding house, lodging house, or rooming house.

Shared work spaces that foster collaboration, ideas and innovation for product and idea development, and producing innovative products for economic and community development.

An establishment or place of business which is maintained, operated or used for storing, keeping, buying or selling junk, or for the maintenance or operation of an automobile graveyard, and the term shall include garbage dumps and sanitary landfills.

An off-street space used for loading or unloading not less than 14 feet in width, 45 feet in length and 14 feet in height, and containing not less than 1,300 square feet, including both access and maneuvering area.

A lodging, boarding or rooming house, as defined in the State Building Code.

One or more rooms for the use of one or more individuals not living as a single housekeeping unit and not having cooking facilities. A "lodging unit" shall include rooms in boarding houses, tourist houses, or rooming houses.

An area or parcel of land or part thereof, not including water area, in common ownership, designated on a plan filed with the administrator of this bylaw by its owner or owners as a separate lot.

A use engaged in the basic processing and manufacturing of materials, or the manufacture from previously prepared materials, of finished products or parts, including processing, fabrication, assembly, treatment, packaging, incidental storage, sales and distribution of such products.

A facility as defined in 105 CMR 145.020, including a mobile clinic.

The following definitions shall apply in Section 9.5:

A social, sports, or fraternal association or organization, which is used exclusively by members and their guests, which may contain bar and/or eating facilities.

A building development that includes two or more vertically and/or horizontally integrated non-residential uses. Such non-residential mixed-use development is sometimes sited where the introduction of residents or leisure/retail shoppers and Class A office visitors can result in conflicts with the operations of said businesses.

Any manufactured, transportable, year-round structure on one or more chassis and containing a flush toilet, bath or shower, and a kitchen sink; designed to be connected to a piped water supply, sanitary sewage system and electric or gas service.

A building or group of buildings containing one or more guest rooms with separate outside entrances for each room or suite of rooms and for which room or suite of rooms automobile parking space is provided.

A facility at which, by contract, motor vehicles are made available for rent for a period not longer than 24 hours.

A building or premises used for the dispensing, sales or offering for sale of motor fuels directly to users of motor vehicles. Other sales activities and any repairs shall be activities minor in scope and clearly subordinate to the sale of motor fuels, oils and lubricants. No drive-through facilities are permitted without further zoning relief.

A building or use which is designed or intended to be used for the storage, servicing, repair, maintenance, or cleaning of motor vehicle equipment.

Premises for the sale of used or new motor vehicles, including supplying of fuel, oil, lubrication, washing, or repair services, but not to include body work or painting.

A residential rental use owned and operated by the Town, including by the Stoughton Housing Authority, with three or more dwelling units, which shall be restricted to occupancy by persons 60 years of age or older and low income handicapped persons who otherwise meet the eligibility criteria as provided in MGL c. 121B and the regulations promulgated thereunder and which shall be permitted and operated only as a community facility use and shall satisfy all requirements for a community facility use.

An attached or semi-detached building or structure with continuous or common walls containing three or more dwelling units.

A day or overnight camp operated by a not-for-profit entity.

A recreational facility operated by a not-for-profit entity.

Space or rooms used for professional, administrative, clerical, and similar uses.

The space on a lot unoccupied by buildings, unobstructed to the sky, not devoted to streets, driveways, or off-street parking or loading spaces and expressed as a percentage of total lot area.

The duly authorized agent, attorney, purchaser, devisee, trustee, lessee or any person having vested or equitable interest in the use, structure or lot in question.

An open space or a garage, on a lot used for parking motor vehicles, the dimensions of which are not less than nine feet wide by 19 feet long and to which there is an access from a street, plus not less than 100 square feet of access and maneuvering space, whether inside or outside a structure, for exclusive use as a parking stall for one motor vehicle, and further being surfaced with a durable pavement.

A facility providing personal services such as hair salon, barber shop, tanning beds, dry cleaning, print shop, photography studio, personal fitness center, and the like.

One or more retail stores or commercial buildings of 20,000 square feet of gross floor area individually or in the aggregate or more, or a shopping center, with a unified plan and/or architectural scheme (as determined by the Zoning Board of Appeals in the special permit), on a single parcel of land or on single parcels contiguously arranged, and shall include, but shall not be limited to the following:

See Section 8.4.

See Section 8.5.

See Section 4.5.

A development permitting single-family, two-family, and multifamily dwelling units, community facilities and commercial facilities on a single tract of land arranged in such a manner so that the number of dwelling units and/or facilities on said tract of land is consistent with the zoning in which the tract is located (namely, RU, RC, RB, RA, and R-M) and further that the number of dwelling units and/or facilities in all other zones (namely GB, HB, NB, I) shall be consistent with R-M zoning.

A facility generating electricity for public or private use, but not including any solar energy system.

The structure in which the principal use is engaged on the locus.

An office for the conducting and operating of a profession. For the purposes of this bylaw, professional occupations shall be limited to the practice of accounting, insurance, real estate, medicine, law, dentistry, architecture, planning and engineering.

The business or occupation of extracting stone from an open excavation. Quarrying does not include the excavation and removal of sand and gravel.

Recorded in the Norfolk District of Registry of Deeds or registered in the Norfolk District Registry of Land Court.

Renewable and alternate energy companies, laboratory or research establishments including biotechnology companies, but excluding laboratories categorized as Level 4 by the National Institutes for Health.

A facility selling new or used goods to an end user but not otherwise specifically listed in the Table of Use Regulations.[3]

A retail facility with more than 8,001 square feet of gross floor area and less that 20,000 square feet of gross floor area.

A retail facility with less than 8,000 square feet of gross floor area.

The area of land between a river's mean annual high water line and a parallel line, measured horizontally as described in 310 CMR 10.58(2).

Any building or portion thereof which contains at least three, nor more than nine, guest rooms which are designed for lodging, with or without meals, and are provided for compensation.

As applied to all residential dwelling units, a room shall be defined as a living room, kitchen, and/or bedrooms. A kitchenette which does not include space for eating, and a dining area of which one full wall opens into a living room shall be counted as 1/2 room each. A bathroom shall not count as a room.

A school aged child care program as that term is defined in MGL c. 15D, § 1A.

Means any rental of all or part of a dwelling unit rented out through the use of advance reservations, for a fee, for a period of not more than 31 consecutive calendar days, excluding: hotels licensed under M.G. L. Chapter, 140, § 6; motels licensed under M.G.L. Chapter 140, § 32B; or lodging establishments licensed under M.G.L. Chapter 140, § 23.

Any permanent or temporary structure, device, letter, word, model, banner, pennant, insignia, trade flag, or representation used as, or which is in the nature of, an advertisement, announcement, or direction, or is designed to attract the eye by intermittent or repeated motion or illumination.

A sign used to direct attention to a service, product sold or other activity performed on the same premises upon which the sign is located.

A sign used simply to identify the name, address, and title of an individual family or firm occupying the premises upon which the sign is located.

For a sign, either freestanding or attached, the area shall be considered to include all lettering, wording, and accompanying designs and symbols, together with background, whether open or enclosed, on which they are displayed, but not including any supporting framework. For a sign consisting of individual letters, designs, and symbols attached to or painted on a surface, building, wall, or window, the area shall be considered to be that of the smallest quadrangle which encompasses all of the letters, designs, and symbols.

The ratio of vertical rise over horizontal distance and is expressed as a fraction or percentage; e.g., 1/5 or 20%.

For the purposes of Section 9.6, the following definitions shall apply:

That part of a building as designated by the State Building Code.

A story under a gable or gambrel roof, the wall plates of which on at least two opposite exterior walls are not more than two feet above the floor of such story including a dormer or dormers whose length does not exceed 50% of the perimeter of the story and whose ridgeline is no higher than the rise of the structure of which is part.

In the SCMUOD, Section 9.3, the following definitions shall also apply:

A way which is over 24 feet in right-of-way width which is dedicated or devoted to public use by legal mapping or by any other lawful procedure. A street includes all public ways, a way which the Town Clerk certified is maintained and used as a public way, a way shown on a plan approved and endorsed in accordance with the "Subdivision Rules, Regulations, and Requirements, in Stoughton, Massachusetts" and a way having, in the opinion of the Stoughton Planning Board, sufficient width, suitable grades and adequate construction to provide for the needs of vehicular traffic in relation to the proposed uses of the land abutting thereon or served thereby, and for the installation of municipal services to serve such land and the buildings erected on or to be erected thereon.

A combination of materials assembled at a fixed location to give support or shelter, such as a building, bridge, trestle, tower, framework, retaining wall, tank, tunnel, tent, stadium, reviewing stand, platform, bin, fence, sign, flagpole, swimming pool, or the like.

A structure lawfully existing at the effective date of this bylaw or any subsequent amendment thereto, which does not conform to one or more provisions of this bylaw.

A preexisting nonconforming dwelling unit created in a single-family dwelling by special permit granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals and recorded at the Norfolk county registry of deeds prior to the adoption of An Act Relative to the Affordable Homes Act by the 193rd Massachusetts General Court on August 6, 2024.

A Town building shall include any building owned and operated by the Town, including by the Stoughton Housing Authority, but shall expressly exclude any residential use except a multifamily senior housing use that is conducted as a community facility use as defined hereunder, which use shall be allowed.

Any vehicle which is immediately portable, and is arranged, intended, designed, or used for sleeping, eating, or temporary business use in conjunction with construction, or is a place in which persons may congregate, including a house trailer or camper.

A vehicular, portable structure built on a chassis, designed as a temporary dwelling for travel, recreation and/or vacation.

A facility for handling freight with or without maintenance facilities.

The purpose for which a structure or lot is arranged, designed, or intended to be used, occupied, or maintained.

Such departure from the terms of this bylaw as the Board, upon appeal in specific cases, is empowered to authorize under the terms of Section 10.3.

A building used primarily for the storage of goods and materials, for distribution, but not for sale on the premises.

Establishment providing individual storage units for long or short term rental to persons or businesses.

Wetland Areas include Bordering Vegetated Wetlands as defined in 310 CMR 10.55(2), Land Under Water Bodies and Waterways as defined in 310 CMR 10.56(2)

Sale of goods not at retail.

The following definitions shall apply in Section 9.4:

A portion of a lot upon which the principal building is situated, unobstructed artificially from the ground to the sky, except as otherwise provided herein. A court shall not be considered to be a yard or any part thereof.