Article 40. Sustainable Residential Incentives
Practical, Cost-Effective, Responsible
To reach our climate goals, we need to begin constructing buildings that do not rely on fossil fuels for heating.
State Senator Mike Barrett and Representative Jeff Roy
In 2020, electric heat pumps still met no more than 7% of heating needs in buildings globally, yet they could easily supply more than 90% of global space and water heating at a lower CO2 emissions level – even taking the upstream carbon intensity of electricity into account – than condensing gas boiler technology (which typically operates at 92-95% efficiency).
For existing homeowners considering switching to heat pumps, there is $10,000 rebate and 0% interest Heat Loan from MassSave:
For builders and new homeowners, there is MassSave rebate up to $40,000 for all electric homes:
Mass Save RNC All-Electric Home 1-pager.pdfUpdate
On 2/25/2022, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Municipal Law Unit issued a decision on two Brookline zoning bylaws that, while similar in some respects, differ from the proposed Article 40.
We have been reviewing and analyzing what impact this decision might have on Article 40 and have considered the comments and opinions of Lexington’s Town Counsel and our own legal counsel. We have concluded that, given the short time before the Town Meeting this spring, it would be beneficial and responsible to delay consideration of Article 40 to the next Town Meeting.
We understand that many will be disappointed by this delay, but the Clean Heat Alliance wants to assure you that we are committed to the development of zoning incentives that enable responsible residential construction through energy efficiency, sustainability, and fossil-fuel use standards. During the coming months, we will continue our outreach and consensus-building efforts with residents, the local development community, Town staff, and Town boards/committees.
Electrification of new construction (and major renovations) is practical, cost-effective, and critical to meeting Lexington’s goals and commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and for creating healthy, resilient, and lower operational cost housing for all residents, including our most vulnerable, low-income populations.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or feedback in the interim, and thank you for all of your previous and continued support of sustainable development in Lexington.
Summary of Article 40
This article would create zoning incentives to encourage new residential construction consistent with the Town's emission reduction and sustainability goals by:
Defining performance standards for energy efficiency, sustainability, and on-site fossil-fuel use, and;
Reducing allowable Gross Floor Area for new residential construction that doesn’t meet these standards, and
Providing tiered gross floor area incentives, up to current allowable limits, for new residential construction that meet the defined higher performance standards.
This would apply to new construction only, existing homes or modifications to existing homes would not have to meet these standards and would not have allowable Gross Floor Area changed from current limits.
This coordinated effort is a practical, necessary and valuable incremental step in reducing pollution and investing in clean energy technologies for future generations.
What Article 40 does and does not do:
What Article 40 does
Contains three tiers of Gross Floor Allowance (GFA) for new construction:
Fossil fuel homes (Heating, hot water, or cooking systems powered by natural gas, propane, or oil)
Homes with Clean Heat (without onsite combustion of fossil fuel), good efficiency (HERS rating 47), and solar ready
Homes with Clean Heat, better efficiency (HERS rating 42), minimum solar generation, and EV charging
Provides clear and practical standards for builders.
Starts a necessary step toward the Town’s goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
Creates better new homes for homeowners:
avoids indoor air pollution and safety risk from onsite fossil fuel combustion;
significantly decreases operating costs for new homeowners over propane systems, the current choice of residential builders in Lexington; and
increases long-term property values.
What Article 40 does NOT do
Does not require “net-zero” building standards (i.e., neither zero onsite carbon emissions or nor emissions offsets)
Does not apply to existing buildings that might undergo renovations, additions or space/water heating system replacements
Does not restrict fossil fuel combustion for:
back-up generators
outdoor appliances
Does not create Lexington’s own building code. Article 40 is complementary to the current state stretch code.
FAQ
How will this affect my home/property?
The allowable GFA changes do not apply to existing dwellings or any modifications to existing dwellings.
Why do we address sustainable building practices in zoning?
Zoning incentives are a common tool that municipalities use to encourage desired developments for the community, including better-than-code buildings. Below are some examples of zoning incentives:
Dense/sensitive development (Site Sensitive, Balanced Housing, Public Benefit Housing, etc.)
Somerville Overlay Districts/Master Planned Development (MPD): LEED Gold, Passive House, and no onsite fossil fuel combustion for greater density (since 2019)
Hartwell CM district: taller buildings need to be free of onsite fossil fuel and LEED Silver (lab buildings exempted, approved by Attorney General's Office in 2021)
Hartwell CM district: taller lab buildings need to meet the first phase of heating without onsite fossil fuel (pending Attorney General Office’s approval)
How does Article 40 work with Home Rule for Clean Heat (Article 29 2021 ATM)?
Both this article and Home Rule for Clean Heat have similar goals - to regulate fossil burning in new buildings. The difference is timing and scope. Both are necessary to help the town to reach the climate goals it has.
Timing:
Home Rule for Clean Heat (Article 29 2021 ATM) is currently being reviewed at the state level, the earliest to go to effect is December 2022.
This article will take effect by January 2023, giving developers time to go through property inventories at hand.
Scope: This article is a holistic progression from Article 29 Home Rule for Clean Heat (2021 ATM), which at the time had a goal of uniformity with neighboring towns’ near identical motion language. Specifically, this article broadened on the most practical, cost-effective and responsible areas of building sustainability and resiliency:
Better insulation and building envelopes (via HERS standard, which is currently being reported for new constructions)
Solar energy generation potential
Electric car charging capability and readiness
Clean cooking and fireplace
If this article passes, and the Home Rule for Clean Heat also gets approved by the state legislature, both will take effect and the more stringent requirements will prevail.
Who will be affected by the proposed bylaw?
Approximately 100 new residential dwellings each year.
The effective date is no earlier than January 2023.
Will the tiered GFA program cause additional work for building inspectors and town staff?
The Clean Heat Alliance representatives have met with the Building Commissioner and staff. The proposed requirements for higher tiers of GFA in new construction will pose no or minimum additional work or processes:
No on-site fossil fuel HVAC, hot water, and cooking: no change
HERS rating (currently one of the required reports): no change
Solar readiness: minimally additional checkpoints
Electric car readiness: minimally additional checkpoints
Why was the value of 50% chosen for reducing the allowable gross floor area for new construction, before allowing increases for meeting sustainable development standards?
The proposed new GFA of 50% less than Lexington’s current limit (without incentives) is the result of multiple analyses of Lexington’s housing inventory, development trends, and comparisons to peer communities.
Similar residential districts in Brookline, Concord, Newton, and Weston allow, on average, 65% of Lexington’s max GFA, and some only 47%.
Homes replaced in Lexington with new construction over the last several years were only utilizing, on average, 42% of their allowable GFA.
The median home size built before 2000 is 3,650 sq-ft GFA (this is 83% of all homes in Lexington). The median lot size of homes built after 2000 is ~16,400 sq-ft, which would allow a ~3,590 sq-ft home at 50% of Lexington’s current GFA limit.
A new GFA limit of 50% of Lexington’s current limit is consistent with the size of the majority of the Town’s housing inventory and is comparable to what is allowed in peer communities.
Why were HERS rating standards 42 and 47 chosen for more efficient homes?
About half of the new homes built in 2020-2021 have scored HERS ratings of 47 or lower, without having clean heat (electric HVAC), which could further reduce HERS ratings by about 5 points.
Had high efficiency heat pumps been included in these homes at little to no additional cost, >80% of recent new construction would meet HERS 47 (Tier 1) and >40% would meet HERS 42 (Tier 2).
We chose these very doable HERS targets to encourage developers to improve building envelopes with better practices currently used by their peers. The state Department of Energy Resources has done analysis that found that HERS of 42 is "cost-effective to build and cheaper to operate".
The Article says that this might apply to major renovations, but the Motion language does not include them. Why were they removed?
When the proposed Article language was submitted in December 2021, it was considered to possibly include major renovations. However, after multiple meetings with the town Planning and Building staff, their recommendations were heeded to avoid creating non-conforming existing homes. So, existing homes or any modifications to them have been excluded from the new gross floor area standards.
Note that the Article language will not change as the Article has been accepted and published. The motion is what will be debated and voted at Town Meeting. When Articles are submitted they can be more general and have a wider scope so as to give flexibility for changes that might be considered later on in the motion.
What are heating costs that new homeowners can expect?
Based on current utility and fuel prices as of Mar 2022 and average heating load of newest homes in Lexington.
Assumed fossil fuel efficiencies: gas 96%, propane 96%, oil 85%. Assumed heat pump COP: 3.2
Sources: Mass.gov, Eversource.com, NationalGridUS.com, and Lexington Permit Database