LAND USE AND ZONING INTRODUCTION The Land Use and Zoning chapter of the Master Plan LAND USE GOALS examines past development trends and current land use patterns within the community. Land use refers to the physical arrangement of a community’s residential, Assess present zoning commercial, industrial and institutional development, along district designations with its transportation network, infrastructure and vacant across town. land. Examining spatial development patterns, rates of change, and trends can provide insight into how the town Update and modernize evolved under varying social, economic and environmental the Town’s development conditions. Understanding land use change within a regulations and community is a key aspect of the overall Master Plan, and policies. forms the basis for discussion regarding the future direction of the Town. Promote land use practices and policies that preserve the Many individuals confuse land use with zoning. In the Town’s agricultural 1900s, local governments began to utilize zoning as a means heritage. for regulating the amount and location of development. Zoning is a tool that local officials may utilize to balance Focus on creating a private property rights with the public interest in providing more traditional Town Center that serves as for orderly growth and change. In order to understand how the civic and cultural zoning may aid in the accomplishment of community goals, heart of the this section of the Master Plan begins with a land use community. analysis, which considers five aspects of Dracut’s land use pattern: Maintain development policies that encourage a diverse What are the features of Dracut’s land use pattern? economic base, How did this pattern come about? provide housing What aspects of the town’s land use pattern are opportunities for all essential to the character of the town? residents, and protect local neighborhoods. Is the existing land use pattern consistent with community goals? Enhance the visual What opportunities exist to guide future appearance of the development in a fashion consistent with the goals community through of the Master Plan or other established community better design guidance. goals? Land Use and Zoning | 1 BACKGROUND A community’s physical progression can be traced through its land use history. The Town of Dracut has a well-documented history, typical of many communities found throughout New England. Native Americans were the first inhabitants of the community and subsisted by hunting, cultivating crops, and fishing along the Merrimack River and Beaver Brook. Dracut was once part of Chelmsford and was granted separation and officially incorporated as a town on February 26, 1701. Parts of the community were part of the Wamesit Praying Town, one of the preserves set aside by the colonists for Christianized Indians. Dracut's early economy relied on fishing, lumbering and milling. There has been a mill on Beaver Brook in the Navy Yard since 1763. In the 19th century the mills were used for paper making and cotton textile manufacturing. Dracut took part in the early industrial development and trade along the Merrimack River, and served with Lowell as a center of the region's economy. The Merrimack Mills at Collinsville were the first in America to manufacture cloth - 60 years before Lowell began building its mills. After the mid-1800s, Dracut lost much of its manufacturing base. Some of the neighborhoods along the Merrimack River that were most closely tied to the mills in Lowell were eventually annexed by Lowell. Throughout this time, agriculture remained an important economic activity in the town. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Town's economy was revived for several decades as Lake Mascuppic became a popular resort destination with events and activities centered on Lakeview Park. Later in the 1900s, regional highway improvements served to disperse the region's workforce, and reinforced the development of Dracut as primarily a bedroom community for employment centers located in Lowell, Nashua, New Hampshire, and in towns along the interstate routes north of Boston. Dracut continues to have a modest economic base, which includes commercial development, industrial activities, health care and small businesses. While Routes 38 and 113 run through the Center of town, the lack of direct highway access has limited non-residential development and often has been perceived as a barrier to economic development. Yet, Dracut is only two miles from Interstate 93. The western half of the Town is suburban in character, while the eastern half is more rural. Although development in this area has been increasing, a significant amount of land remains in agriculture and open space, contributing to the rural and agrarian character. Much of this undeveloped land is not protected however, and could be converted to residential, commercial or industrial uses. Like the Town as a whole, the majority of East Dracut is zoned Residential 1 (R-1), with a minimum lot size of 40,000 square feet. Given the preponderance of large lot 40,000-square foot residential zoning, the Town’s remaining rural character may gradually disappear without efforts to protect open space, modify land use policy, and Land Use and Zoning | 2 implement design guidelines to ensure that future development projects are consistent with the Town’s goals and aspirations. POPULATION TRENDS As illustrated in Table 1.1 below, Dracut’s population grew from 8,666 in 1950 to 13,674 by 1960, a growth rate of 57.79%. During the 1960s, the Town’s population increased to 18,214, a growth rate of 33.2%. Although these growth rates seem high, other communities in the Northern Middlesex region, such as Billerica, also saw their populations more than double during the 1950-1970 time period. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, population growth slowed to 16.66%, 20.45% and 11.6% respectively, and slowed again to 3.13% between 2000 and 2010, just slightly greater that the Greater Lowell regional growth rate of 2.02%. Over the six decades extending from 1960 to 2010, Dracut’s population increased by 115.42%, an average of 23.08% per decade. In contrast, the regional population grew by 69.4% during the same time period, from 169,403 to 286,901, an average of 13.88% per decade. With a total area of 21.36 square miles, Dracut’s population density was approximately 1,379 persons per square mile in 2010. Table 1.1: Dracut Population Trends - 1950-2010 Year Population % Change 1950 8,666 - 1960 13,674 57.79 1970 18,214 33.20 1980 21,249 16.66 1990 25,594 20.45 2000 28,562 11.60 2010 29,457 3.13 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Population projections prepared by MassDOT for the Town of Dracut are outlined in Table 1.2 on the following page and reflect a slightly higher future growth rate for the Town compared to the region as a whole. Between 2010 and 2020, Dracut is expected to experience a growth rate of 1.8%. The growth rate is anticipated to increase to 2% in the 2020s and 4.8% in the 2030s, reaching a total projected population of 32,042 in 2040. The projections estimate that Dracut’s population will comprise 10.4% of the Greater Lowell region’s total population by 2040, approximately the same as the current proportion. Land Use and Zoning | 3 Table 1.2: Actual and Projected Population: 2010-2040 Dracut as a Dracut Dracut Growth Greater Lowell Regional Growth Percentage of Year Population Rate Region Rate Region 2010 29,457 3.1% 286,901 2.0% 10.3% 2020 29,976 1.8% 291,101 1.5% 10.3% 2030 30,571 2.0% 295,370 1.5% 10.4% 2040 32,042 4.8% 306,913 3.9% 10.4% Sources: 2010 U.S. Census Bureau; Projections developed by MassDOT in consultation with NMCOG LAND USE TRENDS Land use in Dracut has largely followed the historic patterns laid out prior to zoning, though new residential development is consuming some agricultural lands and open space in some areas of town. Dracut residents often refer to areas of town by their traditional village designations: Collinsville, Dracut Center, East Dracut, Kenwood, and the Navy Yard. These historic neighborhoods that define the town can still be recognized, although in some cases their distinctions are fading with recent land use changes. The historically denser areas of western and southern Dracut have grown more residential and suburban as the population has expanded, while eastern Dracut has retained more rural character, even though several of the Town’s larger industrial and commercial sites are located along Route 113. Table 1.3 on the following page summarizes the changes in land use from 1971 to 2016. This data was compiled by the University of Massachusetts Amherst through aerial photo interpretation and by NMCOG GIS through interpretation of recent aerial photography. The 2016 land use data is graphically displayed on Map 1 on page 6. This information reflects the amount of land covered by a specific use based on physical attributes and is not parcel specific. The Town of Dracut contains approximately 13,713 acres, of which 13,280 acres are land and 433 acres are bodies of water. In 2016, developed land comprised 6,457 acres, or 47% of the town's total area. Residential development accounted for approximately 86.6% of all developed land, a vast majority being single-family dwellings. Overall, there has been a nearly 92% increase in developed land since 1971, and an 11% increase since 1999. Much of this development has come at the expense of agricultural land, which has decreased approximately 47.5% since 1971 and now accounts for 9.3% of the total land area.