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Store Size Cap – Andover, Massachusetts

Residents of Andover, a community of 31,000 people north of Boston, voted at their annual Town Meeting in April 2007 to prohibit retail stores over 65,000 square feet.

The measure is designed to maintain the vitality of the downtown and to ensure that new commercial development underway near the downtown features small and medium-size stores mixed together with residential, office, and other uses. 

"If you hurt our downtown, you hurt our real estate values. If you hurt our real estate values, you hurt our schools. It has a viral effect through the whole community if you affect downtown," Planning Board Chairman Paul Salafia told the Andover Townsman.

The following measure is what voters approved. (To see the town's complete bylaws, visit Andover's web site).

ARTICLE 48. To see if the Town of Andover will vote to amend the Andover Zoning By-law Article VIII, Section 4.1.4.4., by deleting the following language:

Mixed Use District. New Structures and additions to existing structures shall not be erected within fifty feet to the nearest outside wall of an existing dwelling.

and replacing it with:

"Mixed Use District

a. New structures and additions to existing structures shall not be erected within fifty feet of the nearest outside wall of an existing residential structure.

b. No single establishment of a Business or Commercial Use as described in Appendix A Table 1 Section 3.1.3.C Table of Use Regulation, shall exceed 65,000 SF of gross floor area. A single establishment shall be defined as having independent access, egress and exit ways as required by State Building Code."