What zoning can do:

• Regulate how land is used 
• Regulate the general form of buildings 
• Regulate the intensity of a use 
• Guide the environment surrounding a building 

What zoning cannot do: 

• Force a certain type of business to show up 
• Force an existing business to leave 
• Stop businesses from co-locating in the same area 
• Limit how many people are in one area 
• Reduce the number of cars parked in a neighborhood 
• Require “good” architecture 

The district could address the following zoning and land use issues: 

• Use regulations 
• Housing 
• Parking 
• Dimensional standards 
• Design guidelines 
• Landscaping, buffers, and screening 

Development cannot occur on wetlands and flood hazard zones as mapped by the town. The Wetlands Protection By-law (Chapter 191 of the Town Code) provide these protections. The project aims to safeguard such areas to promote sustainability and resiliency in Stoughton. 

Please refer to this report to get a detailed understanding of the relationship between school enrollment and housing production. 

The concern that constructing new housing will drive up school enrollment is long-standing and widespread in local debates about new residential development and zoning reform in Massachusetts, especially in suburban communities. Many local officials and residents assume that new housing, and especially new multifamily housing, will attract families with children who will inevitably increase enrollment in the local public schools, thus burdening school budgets and municipal finances. 

In 2017, MAPC analyzed the relationship between housing development and school enrollment in municipalities across Massachusetts. Our findings, consistent with other studies, indicated that concerns about those impacts are overstated. 

While it is true that schoolchildren occupying new housing units may cause a marginal change in enrollment, it is one factor among many others. MAPC has explored the underlying dynamics driving school enrollment change in a few individual municipalities as part of municipal planning work. These analyses find that demographic trends, parental preferences, and the characteristics and affordability of available housing often play a much larger role than housing development in enrollment growth and decline.