A rendering of one of four cottage-style homes proposed at 103 Court St. in Dover. (Rendering provided by Robert Baldwin via the City of Dover)
A housing proposal at 103 Court St., in the city’s medium-density residential district, has sparked yet another debate over the use of Transfer of Development Rights.
The tool is used to created higher density housing than the city’s zoning code typically allows. The TDR ordinance, instituted in Dover in 2018, simultaneously protects land with high conservation value, such as wetlands. Developers who accept size restrictions on the homes they are building are awarded “bonus units,” meaning they can build more homes. They are charged a fee, with the money designated for Dover’s Conservation Fund.
Members of Dover’s Planning Department and City Council have said TDR has been successful in creating more housing and conserving land. But TDR projects have now become the epicenter of land-use debates in Dover, with opposition coming from neighboring property owners.
A proposal for four single family, cottage-style homes, and the renovation of an existing 1,700 square-foot single-family home at 103 Court St., was brought to the city’s Planning Board for a third time Tuesday night. Robert Baldwin, manager for leasing and new construction at Central Falls Realty, presented the plan. It has been reduced in size since it was originally proposed in September.
The project initially intended to have a total of nine units comprised of two duplexes and five cottage-style single-family homes. One of the duplexes was to be created by renovating the existing single-family home on the property.
Since then, the project proposal has been shrunk to a total of five units. The plan now calls for four cottage-style homes and the renovation of the existing single-family home.
Read the full story at Foster’s Daily Democrat.
