Large projects, predictable rules.

The problem

Most codes handle large projects through discretion: a negotiated agreement, a planned development, a conditional approval with terms invented case by case. Discretion feels flexible, but it produces unpredictable mitigation, uneven benefits between neighborhoods, long timelines, and approvals that are hard to defend. Applicants can't price the risk. Residents can't see the rules. Staff carry the weight of every negotiation.

What we build

• Clear thresholds that define which projects trigger enhanced review, calibrated so staff and community resources go to the projects with the greatest impact
• Objective standards for traffic, infrastructure, environmental, and fiscal impacts, with defined study requirements
• Community benefit frameworks that are proportional, transparent, and tied to identified impacts
• Streamlined review tracks with published timelines, coordinated departmental review, and defined decision-maker roles
• Modern public notice and engagement requirements, including impact advisory groups
• Post-approval compliance and monitoring provisions

Data centers and energy projects

Data centers, battery storage, solar and wind facilities, and other energy infrastructure are arriving in communities whose codes never contemplated them. We write use definitions, siting standards, and impact frameworks for these projects: power and water demand, noise, setbacks and screening, decommissioning, host community agreements, and the fiscal terms that make a project a net benefit to the community that hosts it.

Boston, Massachusetts

ZoneCo, with Matrix Consulting, advised the Boston Planning & Development Agency on reforming Article 80, the section of the zoning code that has governed Boston's large-project review since 1996. The work reorganized the article, recalibrated thresholds, modernized notice, and devised a new system of impact mitigation and community benefits for the city. Read the case study.