Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) Case Studies

Issues Addressed:
Housing Costs Infrastructure Sustainable Housing

Woodmont Commons, Londonderry, NH

Woodmont Commons is a 603 acre mixed-use development with housing, office space, retail and restaurants, medical space, civic space, and open space. The PUD’s master plan, approved in 2013, divides the former orchard into 12 subdistricts, each with its own mix of street types, block types, building types, and more. The project includes 1,400 new housing units, some of which are age-restricted. Construction of the 20-year project began in 2018.
Completed construction for Woodmont Commons Phase I, and an excerpt of the site plan from the approved PUD application. (Images via TF Moran Engineers (left) and Pillsbury Realty (right)).

Tuscan Village, Salem, NH

Tuscan Village is a large-scale mixed-use district in Salem, NH on the site of a former race track. If the plans for the development are fully executed, the 170-acre site will contain 4 million square feet of development, costing more than $1 billion, and completed potentially by 2030. As of January 2023, the developers plan nearly 1,800 housing units on the site. Roughly 1,200 units were completed or under construction at the end of 2022.
The Tuscan Village mixed-use development in Salem, NH was permitted through a PUD process on the site of the former Rockingham Park Race Track. Housing is located in the mid-ground and background of this photo. (Image via Tuscan Village)

Bloomington, IN

Bloomington, Indiana’s PUD base zoning district is a vehicle for allowing PUDs within the 80,000-person city. For a PUD to be permitted, property owners petition to change the base zoning of their land and submit a PUD plan, which triggers a series of public hearings and municipal staff reviews, and ultimately reviews by their Planning Board equivalent and their governing body. If any housing is built, at least 15% must be deed-restricted Affordable Housing for low-income residents. Much of the city’s recent housing production and notable investments in transit have resulted from a few large PUDs.

Cliff Street Retreat, Ithaca, NY

  • Not long after a custom metal fabricator vacated its small industrial space in Ithaca, NY, the property owner proposed to adapt the existing structure into a mixed-use development incorporating office, restaurant, residential, light industrial, and hotel uses. The industrial use was already non-conforming. The developer and city used the PUD zoning provisions to bypass the purely residential zone’s rules and take on this more ambitious project. The complexity of the site, existing building, and proposed uses required the PUD zoning provision, though the site (at 2 acres) is relatively small among PUDs. The PUD was approved and the terms of the PUD were incorporated into the zoning code itself. Incidentally, the thorough municipal review made the project eligible for State tax relief.
  • Ithaca’s PUD enabling bylaw
  • Cliff Street Retreat PUD District
  • Ithaca.com “Cliff Street Retreat sails through PUD public information session” (May 12, 2021)
An artist's rendering of the finished Cliff Street Retreat PUD Project.

State Law

Resources

Related Tools

A diagram of an idealized age-friendly neighborhood. The neighborhood includes a mix of housing types, including detached single-family homes of various sizes, mixed-use buildings, and a cottage court. The diagram includes the following labels pointing to aspects of the drawing: "Nearby retail, community center, and open space;" "Diverse housing options, including apartments and starter homes;" "Single-story housing layouts with shared amenities;" "Sidewalks and other accessible infrastructure;" and "Accessory dwelling units for multi-generational households."
Age Friendly Neighborhoods
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
An axonometric diagram of two buildings next to each other. One building is four stories with two entrances. On the bottom story there is a sign for "nh hardware." The second building is two stories with three entrances (including a corner entrance), awnings, and cafe tables). The drawing is labeled "Retail, restaurant, and other active uses on ground floor" and "Housing on upper levels."
Mixed-Use Development
A diagram showing two versions of the same building. At the top: a darkened mill-style building with missing windows, a broken roof, and sparse plant growth around it. An arrow points to an image below where the image has been brightened, the windows replaced, the roof repaired, and a tree growing next the structure.
Adaptive Reuse
A diagram of five drawings connect by one-way arrows. First, a drawing of yellow notes labeled "Municipal bond." Second an axonometric drawing of a street with the road and underground pipes showing, labeled "Infrastructure." Third a drawing of a building labeled "Private development." Fourth, a column chart showing a small column on the left in light green, and a large column on the right with a gray area equal in size to the first column and a green area above. The chart is labeled "Property taxes on increased values." Fifth and finally, a drawing of a $50 bill labeled "Bond payments."
Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
A drawing of a plot of land. Most of the land is shown in green and planted with trees, with two small houses. It is labeled "Sending Zone: Land owners sell development permissions to preserve open space/agriculture." A smaller area is grayed out and shows many buildings. It is labeled "Receiving Zone: Land owners buy development permissions to increase allowed density."
Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)
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 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 subdivision of eight single-family homes surrounding a central green. The plot of land is labeled "Site plan that allows for community septic, prioritizing shared open space." Underground pipes lead from each home into a large underground box labeled "Joint septic tank." A pipe leads from that box into a smaller underground box labeled "Pre-treatment system." A pipe extends from that box and branches into many pipes with holes in them under a green area labeled "Community open space that doubles as a leach field."
Wastewater System Alternatives