Age Friendly Neighborhoods Case Studies

Issues Addressed:
Housing Costs Housing Options Multigenerational

Chester, NH

Chester’s age-friendly subdivision law grew from a public outreach campaign that identified a lack of housing options for young people and downsizing seniors. These age-friendly neighborhoods are envisioned to consist of smaller, affordable, lowmaintenance homes for all people regardless of age, ability, or disability. The ordinance allows single-family and duplex developments on lots of at least 12 acres. Density is based on 1.75 acres per single-family home and 2.5 acres per duplex, with a maximum of 10 units in each subdivision. These rules are significantly more permissive and consume less land than Chester’s conventional subdivision rules. Housing must meet universal design standards for accessibility, and each unit can have no more than two bedrooms.

Stow, MA

Stow, Massachusetts’ zoning laws include provisions for an Active Adult Neighborhood Overlay District, which emphasizes design elements to promote aging in place, such as ADA accessibility, clustering of buildings, and the provision of community gathering spaces. Active Adult Neighborhoods are subdivisions on at least 25 acres of land, allowing single-family homes, cottages, duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes. At least 30% of units must be less than 1,800 square feet in size, and at least half of those must be detached single-family dwellings. The maximum density is three units per acre. At least 15% of units must be affordable to low-income households. Both the homes and public realm must be accessible to people with disabilities, and the development must include shared community spaces for residents.

Resources

Related Tools

A diagram showing the front facades of housing types and given labels: small single-family, townhomes (attached single-family), cottage court (grouped small single-family), duplex, stacked duplex, triplex, stacked triplex, four-plex, six-pack, courtyard apartments.
Missing Middle Housing Types
A drawing showing an aerial view of same plot of land three times. Above there is a version labeled "Undeveloped," with a wooded area and a lake and stream. At bottom-left there is a version labeled "Conventional Subdivision." It shows the land divided into a ten parcels of relatively even size spread out across the area. There is a large amount of road and driveway area and many of the trees have been removed. At bottom-right is a version labeled "Cluster Housing." It shows twelve relatively small homes on twelve small parcels, clustered in two groups at the bottom-left of the area. The trees have been preserved, and only a small amount of road/driveway area connects the homes to the main edge of the area. Green trails wind throughout the parcel and connect to both the houses and the public road away from the houses. The Cluster Housing diagram has additional labels: "Preserved Natural Features," "Less Infrastructure," "Bonus units," and "Public access."
Cluster Housing
A diagram of a parcel of land. On the top is a mix of one- to three-story buildings, many with an apparent mix of uses, sitting along the intersection of two roads. This is labeled "Mix of uses using traditional village design." Lines at the edges of this area point draw down, showing this area is at the center of a larger area shown in dark green and apparently undeveloped. It is labeled "80% of rural and conserved in VPA."
Village Plan Alternative (VPA)
A diagram showing an axonometric view of an area with several colorful 1.5 and two-story homes. An area is demarcated on the land and labeled "Designated Housing Opportunity Zone." Below the axonometric drawing is the label "Taxes in Housing Opportunity Zone" with a column chart with two bars. The column on the left is labeled "Before new development" and "Taxed value on property before development." That column is small and shown in green. A larger column on the right is labeled "After new development." The portion of the column equal to the "Before new development" column is also green. The portion above that is gray and hatched and labeled "Untaxed value on new development: savings for up to 10 years."
Housing Opportunity Zones
A diagram showing drawings connected by arrows. First, a plan view showing a large empty area next to dense urban fabric labeled "Large, complex site with single owner." Second, icons of buildings labeled "Mixed-use potential." Third, icons of a paint brush and magnifying glass labeled "Up-front planning and design." Fourth, icons of people talking labeled "public review and input." Fifth and finally, the initial empty plot of land in plan view, now with a mix of building types, a street network, and open spaces.
Planned Unit Developments (PUDs)
A diagram with two versions of the same plot of land, one over the other. On the top version, the land contains only one single-family home with many wings and a large garage and a long driveway. This version is labeled with a large 'X' and "Regulations cannot mandate unaffordable housing everywhere." The version below contains two modestly sized single-family homes at the front of the site, and a driveway leading back to a cottage court, containing six small single-family homes around a central green. This version is labeled with a large checkmark and "Workforce housing must be allowed in a majority of residential areas."
Workforce Housing Ordinance
A diagram of a single-family subdivision with twelve homes. Eight homes in red are labeled "Base Market-Rate Units." Two homes in yellow are labeled "Affordable Units." Two homes in blue are labeled "Bonus Market-Rate Units."
Inclusionary Zoning