Press Release: 9/3/2026

Mayor Signs Zoning Reforms to Preserve Neighborhood Character, Guide Development in Commercial Districts

 

NEW BEDFORD – Mayor Jon Mitchell recently finalized new zoning ordinances that guide development and strengthen the vitality of the City’s main commercial districts and adjacent neighborhoods.

The new ordinances create Form-Based Code Districts in the City’s three main commercial areas: the Downtown Business District, Acushnet Avenue Marketplace District, and Goulart Square Neighborhood Center District. While traditional zoning mostly focuses on the types of businesses and housing allowed in certain areas of the City, the new Form-Based Districts add an emphasis on the physical form and design of buildings and streets to ensure development aligns with the aesthetic character of the existing neighborhood.

“Form-Based Code ensures that whatever is built carries the look and feel of the existing neighborhood, so these areas can grow while still maintaining what makes them unique. “I thank Jen Carloni and the Planning Department for their hard work developing these new guidelines, and the City Council for supporting them.”

Going forward, construction in the three newly created Form-Based Code Districts will match the traditional patterns of development that define the City’s character, including buildings that frame the street, active ground-floor spaces, and pedestrian-oriented streetscapes. An example offered by the Planning Department in a presentation given to the City Council showed a typical convenience store on Acushnet Avenue with a parking lot in the front and the store in the back of the lot. Regulations in the new Form-Based Code District would bring the store to the sidewalk, move parking to the side, and encourage a mixed-use development with residential units above the store.

The new regulations do not change parking requirements, but rather encourage parking placement that keeps the neighborhood pedestrian friendly, such as a parking lot in the back of a building instead of the front against a sidewalk.

The new rules were passed by the City Council on Aug. 25 and signed into the City Code by Mayor Mitchell last week.

Latest in a Long Line of Reforms

Mayor Mitchell has advanced several zoning reforms over the past few years to spur development. Visit the Planning Department’s website for more on the establishment of Transit-Oriented Districts near intercity rail stations, changes to parking requirements for new construction, accessory-dwelling unit guidelines, streamlined permitting, modernization of the Table of Uses, and changes to the dimensional requirements to facilitate housing development.

*Published Sept. 2, 2026