Needham residents who planned to attend the Planning Board's public hearing on Large House zoning changes on Tuesday, Sept. 1, will find the meeting has moved. The board rescheduled the hearing to Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m.

The hearing will take place in the Charles River Room on the first floor of the Public Services Administration Building at 500 Dedham Ave. Residents can also join by Zoom using Meeting ID 880 4672 5264 or call (646) 558-8656 and enter the same ID.

The town's legal notice, posted by the Town Clerk's Office on Aug. 25, did not give a reason for the delay.

Two proposed amendments to the Needham Zoning By-Law are on the hearing agenda, both aimed at limiting the size of new construction in the Single Residence B (SRB) district. That zoning class covers about 7,200 of the town's 8,414 single-family lots, according to the Needham Observer, mostly in Needham's more densely populated neighborhoods.

Article 1 would cap attic floor area. Any half-story space with an interior ceiling height of 5 feet or more would be limited to 50% of the second-floor area.

Article 2 would tighten height limits. Flat-roof buildings would face a maximum of 27 feet under one measurement method or 24 feet under another, with an absolute cap of 33 feet above grade. The top of wall framing on any side could be no higher than 21.5 feet above the foundation.

Both changes, if approved, would take effect Nov. 1, 2026. The stakes are significant.

The amendments are headed to the October 2026 Special Town Meeting for a final vote. The Planning Board hearing is the required public comment step under state law before Town Meeting can act.

Oscar Mertz, a member of the Large House Review Study Committee that developed the proposals, said during a Jan. 20 presentation to the Planning Board that the committee's research showed most new homes would see modest changes. Planning Director Lee Newman agreed that for 67% of recently built homes, the proposed rules would have reduced their size by less than 15%, the Needham Observer reported in April.

"We have been playing with a set of rules that are more lenient than every other town for a long time," Mertz, also a Planning Board candidate, said in an April 2026 interview with the Needham Observer.

The current SRB bylaws were adopted in 2017 after a similar review process.

Written comments can be sent to [email protected]. The full text of the proposed amendments is available at the Planning Department office at 500 Dedham Ave. or on the town's planning website. The board's phone number is (781) 455-7550.