Burlington Town Meeting Approves Mixed-Use Innovation District Near Burlington Mall

BURLINGTON -- January 27, 2025, Burlington Town Meeting voted 91-15 Monday to create a Mixed-Use Innovation District covering 117 acres around the Burlington Mall, Mall Road, and Middlesex Turnpike. Economic Development Director Melissa Tintoklis, who has worked on the proposal for more than two years, told town meeting that roughly 20 percent of the town's office space sits vacant and that e-commerce pressure on anchor retailers like Kohl's and Macy's demands a proactive zoning strategy. The four-article package allows residential development capped at 40 percent of existing commercial square footage per site, roughly 525 units for the mall parcel, with mandatory 20 percent outdoor amenity space, a 120-foot height cap for lab buildings, and a site-specific Planning Board special permit required for any significant residential project. The Planning Board was split, voting 4-3 against the measure, with the minority citing concerns that Burlington's housing stock is already more than 30 percent multifamily and that piecemeal development across multiple property owners would undermine meaningful mitigation. The Land Use Committee backed the articles 6-1, the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee unanimously approved the language 6-0, and the Conservation Commission voted 4-0 in support, noting that more than half of the 117-acre zone is currently impervious asphalt draining untreated into Vine Brook. A fiscal impact study by Landwise projected a net positive of $2.2 million over 10 years even with new residential units taxed at residential rates.