Brockton Planning Board Recommends Approval of Four-Neighborhood Form-Based Zoning Code

BROCKTON — April 7, 2026 — Brockton Planning Board unanimously recommended a four-neighborhood form-based zoning code and approved four site plans at its April 7 meeting. The board voted 5-0 to send the form-based code — covering downtown Troutbrook, Campello, Montello, and Lovett Brook — to the City Council with a favorable recommendation, the second time the referral has been made after the council's membership turned over at the end of 2025. Emily Keyes Ennis of EnnisLens Strategies Group described the code as built around building form, massing, and a points-based incentive zoning system that awards density bonuses for public benefits; the companion design guidelines are expected before the board on May 5. The board also cleared site plans for an accessory dwelling unit at 24 Nadine Road, a 50-by-200-foot contractor storage building at 75 Lawrence Street — with a condition requiring the owner to thin and permanently maintain vegetation on an abutting southerly parcel — a T-Mobile retail store within the Westgate Drive trampoline park parking lot, and a 14,400-square-foot four-bay contractor building at 82 Ames Street, where Bob Rigo of Riverhawk Environmental described a site that had served as "a dumping ground" requiring semi-annual cleanouts before Conservation Commission-approved redevelopment. The city's newly appointed planning director, Elijah Barbalas, was not present; Chair Tony Gonzales noted April 7 was Barbalas's first day in the role.