City Councilor Endorsements

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Community Group Endorsements

Local Organizations and Community Groups that Support Northland Newton Development

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The League of Women Voters

Newton Urban Design Commission

Engine 6

Newton Economic Development Commission

Green Newton

Newton Citizens Commission on Energy

350 Mass – Newton Node

Citizens for Affordable Housing in Newton Development Organization, Inc.

U-CHAN (Uniting Citizens for Housing Affordability in Newton)

Families Organizing for Racial Justice

Newton Interfaith Clergy Association

Bike Newton Steering Committee

Progressive Newton

Newton Democrats – Executive Committee

Voters for a Vibrant Newton PAC

Mayor Ruthanne Fuller Endorsement

Originally Published Dec 16, 2019 in Mayor’s Update Email

Two weeks ago, the Newton City Council approved by a 17 to 7 vote a special permit and zoning to allow housing, restaurants, shops and offices to be built at the end of Needham Street at Oak Street (i.e., the location for many years of Marshalls, AAA and Paulette’s Ballet Studio). It will be built by the Northland Investment Corporation. A group of Newton residents are collecting signatures to require the City Council to either repeal its vote or to hold an election for Newton’s voters to decide whether to repeal the approved zoning.

This referendum process is provided for in Newton’s City Charter. The last time it was done was in 2007 when residents challenged the site plan approval of the new Newton North High School to stop its construction. Voters rejected that measure by 2,492 votes, 8,532 to 6,040. (The marijuana ballot questions put to the voters in 2018 were not referendums but rather voter petitions as authorized by state law.)

 How does the referendum process work in Newton? 

• Residents have 20 days from the City Council vote on Dec. 2 to collect the signatures of 5% of the registered voters in Newton at the time of the last municipal election. There were 60,630 registered voters, meaning signatures from 3,032 registered voters must be collected and turned into the City Clerk.

• Once the signatures are filed with the City Clerk, they will be certified by the City Clerk’s office (as delegated by the Election Commission). Certification means verifying that the signatures are from voters registered in the City of Newton. City Clerk David Olson expects the certification process will be complete by Jan. 6, 2020.

• Once certified, the signatures will be publicly available for two days during which time a voter may file a written objection to the sufficiency or validity of the signatures. The Election Commission reviews any challenged signatures and decides if they are valid.

• If a sufficient number of signatures have been certified, the Northland zoning approval is placed on hold pending the outcome of a City Council revote or the results of an election.

• After the signatures have been certified, the City Council has 30 days either to repeal the Northland approval or to refer the matter to voters. To repeal its previous vote requires a two-thirds majority vote (16 votes). The City Council voted 17-7 in favor of the Northland zoning in December. Notably, a new City Council will be seated on January 1, 2020 with five different members. (Four of the departing members voted “aye” with one voting “nay.”)

• If the City Council does not vote to rescind the Northland rezoning, it must set an election date. The election can either be set for the next municipal election in November 2021, or the City Council can set a date for a special election within 120 days. The cost of holding the election could range from $20,000 to $80,000 depending on whether it is concurrent with another. (City Clerk David Olson needs approximately 60 days to notify the public of the election, print the ballots, and line up poll workers for a Special Election.  A Special Election may be held on the same day as another election. Notably, there is a Presidential Primary on Tuesday, March 3.)  

Where do I Stand?

If there is a referendum, I will vote “yes” to uphold the zoning approved by the City Council and allow the Northland project to go forward. Like many of us in Newton, I have concerns about approving new development unless it is right for the surrounding neighborhood/village and right for our city as a whole. I know traffic is a real problem in Newton too much of the time. I can see that buildings in new developments in neighboring cities and towns are often poorly designed and out of scale. I spend a lot of time analyzing the condition and enrollment capacity of our schools and I know we will continue to have to invest heavily in our school buildings. I am keenly aware that Northland has been approved even as other developments are under consideration now and in the coming months. Yet, even in light of these realities, I am now convinced that this Northland project will be good for Needham Street, for Newton Upper Falls and for Newton.

Why?

• We can and should do something better with these 22.6 acres. The site now consists of an enormous empty parking lot, old decaying industrial warehouse buildings, a single-story retail big box store, and a charming historic former piano mill that is vacant and deteriorating. Drive or walk around this aging industrial complex and see for yourself. (You can also familiarize yourself with the plans here.)

• Ten of the 22.6 acres (~ 40% of the site) will be transformed from concrete to parkland, greens and a spray park/playground with 750 new trees and a restored and daylighted South Meadow Brook.

• We get desperately needed apartments (140 of them) for people on tight incomes. Those affordable apartments are guaranteed to be here in perpetuity and will allow us to welcome to Newton so many people that are often excluded because of the high cost of our housing.

• We also add 660 apartments with market based rents of a type that is in high demand here in Newton – rental units in elevator buildings with restaurants and retail outside the front door and quick access to the T. Seniors who are downsizing and people in their twenties and thirties have few choices right now to stay or come back to Newton if they want this type of housing and lifestyle.

• One of the apartment buildings will also be a first for Newton, built for “age-in-community” living using universal design and ADA accessibility standards and designed for people of all ages and abilities.

• The former Saco Pettee Mill (that previously housed Clarks Shoes and Paulette’s Ballet Studio) will be historically preserved and repurposed for office space.

• The project includes not only a mix of retail, restaurants, offices and apartments but also Northland is required to set aside retail space for locally-owned, non-chain merchants.

• The residents, employees and visitors not just at Northland but from Upper Falls and along Needham Street for the first time will be able to hop on a free, electric shuttle that will run every 10 minutes, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week to the Newton Highlands T stop.

• The City Council imposed a maximum number of car trips on Northland. The City of Newton Planning Department will strictly monitor new car trips against this standard and will require changes and/or additional funding from Northland if it doesn’t meet the required traffic level.

• MassDOT is just about to invest $30.5 million in reconstructing Needham Street/Highland Avenue with smarter traffic signals, fewer curb cuts, better sidewalks and protected bike lanes. After this work, Needham Street will continue to sometimes have heavy and slow traffic. However, for the first time, it will be inviting for pedestrians and bicyclists and, with the Northland shuttle, be connected to public transit, the MBTA stop at Newton Highlands, with frequent and free service.

• Almost every parking space will be underground and the City Council insisted on the right number of spaces (not too many and not too few).

• The buildings themselves are required to meet stringent green standards. At least three of them are being built to “passive house” certification levels, making the project a leader in Massachusetts in sustainable development. All of them will meet LEED requirements. Plus, the project includes solar panels, rainwater harvesting, electric vehicle charging stations, electric-only appliances, and plenty of parking for bicycles.

• The design and scale of the buildings themselves were scrutinized and, with a lot of input, changed to work for people walking and biking and for the adjacent neighborhood. Good design principles were incorporated, including breaking up the mass of the buildings.

• Northland is investing heavily in Newton above and beyond the initiatives already mentioned. Another $9.3 million will be invested in upgrades in the neighborhood for transportation ($5 million), sewer system improvements ($1.85 million), renovations to the nearby Countryside Elementary School ($1.5 million), and a spray park/splash pad for little ones by the Upper Falls Greenway ($1 million). (As an aside, Northland is headquartered in Newton and plans to relocate to this site.)

• The City Council analyzed potential impacts by the project on traffic, on parking on the site and in the adjacent neighborhood, on city and school services, and on the environment. The Councilors insisted that the developer design the project and contribute funding that addressed these impacts both now and in the coming years in a comprehensive and enforceable manner.

• The project kept getting better. Listening to the neighbors (300+ meetings and 12 public hearings) and City Councilors, Northland reduced the size from 2 million square feet to 1.1 million square feet to right size it for this location.

• Over the 18 months of active revisions, negotiations and compromises, the Northland project kept getting more and more aligned with the goals set out in the Needham Street Area Vision Plan, a proactive plan finished in August 2018 and written by a broad range of Newton community members. The plan called for just what Northland is delivering. Here is an excerpt. (The full plan can be found here.):

Needham Street Area Vision Plan 2018 

“The Needham Street area will be a prosperous mixed-use district that emulates many of the positive aspects of Newton’s villages. The area will be designed for all ages and connected to transportation options. The Needham Street area will continue to reflect its industrial history and current commercial strength while adding diverse residential options and modern innovation industries. It will also be supported by a mix of cultural and recreational opportunities. Future growth will incorporate environmentally sustainable technologies.”

• By the end, the project earned the support of not only two-thirds plus of the City Councilors but also from a wide variety of community groups from the League of Women Voters Newton to Green Newton, Livable Newton to the Newton Urban Design Commission, the Newton Planning and Development Board to the Newton Housing Partnership, the Newton Economic Development Commission to the Newton Conservators, and the Newton-Needham Regional Chamber.

• The alternative is uncertain but, to me, unappealing. The site may stay in its rather dilapidated state for quite a while. Northland might come back with an all retail/office proposal. Northland may also choose to move forward with a 40B housing project or projects. In its first phase, it might have up to 646 units (with or without a commercial component), most likely with fewer of the positive elements of the currently approved project. 40B projects bypass all local zoning restrictions such as density and height restrictions when the community does not have a sufficient amount of affordable housing as determined by the state. (Newton does not right now.) More information on the City’s 40B status will be coming later this week.

If this gets to a ballot, I hope you will join me in voting “yes” to allow this project to be built. I also hope you will join me in listening carefully to and thinking deeply about the concerns raised by those who choose to vote against it. I am continuously struck by the deep love of all of us for this good city. Let’s treat our neighbors with respect during these discussions about Northland and ascribe good intentions and good motives to all.

A Newton that is Truly Welcoming and Sustainable

by Kathleen Hobson
Originally Published Dec 1, 2019 on Village14.com

Tomorrow night, we as a community, through our elected representatives, have an opportunity to breathe life into a vision of Newton that is truly welcoming and sustainable. As our City Councilors engage in final deliberations on the Northland development, I hope they stay focused on the enormous benefits that so many residents and local organizations—Engine 6, Green Newton, 350Mass, the Newton-Needham Chamber, the League of Women Voters, Mothers Out Front see in this project.

The benefits have been enumerated many times and from various angles, but briefly, the project will transform 23 disjointed acres of an obsolete industrial tract into a walkable, environmentally sensitive new neighborhood with the following features (list not exhaustive):

• 800 new homes, 140 of them affordable—the most ever created in Newton by a single development

• 10 acres of public open space, including 8 new parks, and new connections to the Upper Falls Greenway

• significant new retail and office space, generating millions in new revenue

• ample parking for cars and bikes, plus car-share and bike-share infrastructure

• a “mobility hub” with free public shuttle service to the Newton Highlands T station every 10 minutes (plus free T passes for residents!)

• cutting-edge sustainability, including LEED for Neighborhood Development certification and 3 Passive House-certified residential buildings, making it the largest Passive House multifamily project in the state

At this point, all foreseeable impacts—on traffic, parking, city finances, the environment—have been evaluated. Plans for their mitigation, inscribed in the Council order, are strict, comprehensive, and enforceable (see 11/14/19 Planning Memo).

Nevertheless, opponents of Northland complain that they haven’t been “taken seriously“ and “a compromise balancing different points of view has not been reached“—and so have given notice that they’re moving forward with plans for petition drives to reverse Council approval (should this happen) not only of the Northland project, but also of the Washington Street Vision.

The threat is no joke. Even so, it’s hard to take seriously the notion that development negotiations should always come to rest at some magical midpoint between thoughtful, far-sighted planning informed by a wide range of community needs and constructive feedback (on the one hand), and (on the other) the short-sighted views of “neighborhood groups“ who seemingly would be happy if nothing ever changed. What opponents are asking for is not a balanced “compromise“ but special treatment—or else.

Claims reported recently in the Boston Globe—that councilors have failed to “meaningfully address traffic [and] the financial impact“—are simply untrue. In fact (as Councilor Auchincloss explained in his Nov. 19 newsletter), traffic “was the subject of a dozen surveys or reviews and intensive negotiations,“ and now “traffic control measures are robust.“ The project will have a “net-positive fiscal impact (including school costs)“ and comes with “almost $10 million to upgrade area infrastructure,“ including $1.5 million for a new Countryside school.

Some opponents, stuck in their own nightmare visions of “mega-development,“ have argued that denying the Northland rezone and special permit, and forcing the developers to “go 40B,” would produce a better project: smaller in scale but with a greater number of affordable housing units. My pro-housing Engine 6 colleagues and I reject this argument, which fails to recognize (a) that the housing crisis is largely due to extremely low overall supply, and (b) the current proposal’s manifold other benefits.

The Northland developers have shown themselves to be open-minded, reasonable, and willing to try new things in the face of daunting challenges (climate change, housing shortage). As they told the Globe, they are at the end of a process that began three years ago and has included hundreds of community meetings. They have “engaged with anyone and everyone who wished to meet with [them] to provide feedback.“ In return, they have made major changes to a project that started out looking pretty good, but now will truly be a “landmark green development“ (see Green Newton endorsement) that makes a significant dent in our housing shortage (see Engine 6 housing explainer).

So: It’s time. I hope our City Councilors set their sights high tomorrow night and approve this game-changing project. I hope they can steer clear of the trap we sometimes find ourselves in: the idea that Newton—in the midst of a region desperate for more homes—is somehow finished, closed, without room for any more people. This is not a welcoming vision. I don’t think it’s who we’re meant to be.

Letters from Newton Resident Supporters

Click on Name to Download Letter of Support

Shelley Barron
Will Barron
Alex Benmoshe
Benjamin Betzalel
Abraham Brownell
Adam Buchbinder
Sheldon Buckler
Krisztina Bukur-Doczy
Amy Cobaugh
David Conklin
Steve Dai
Joseph De Luca
Sally Diloreto
Rajender Dudani
Johanna Geik
Kal Gullapalli
Kelley Hadlow
Krista Hitchens
Margaret Hummel
Carole Jabbawy
Gary Jacobson
Simon Laskey
Joe Leavey
Abner Logan
Alexander MacKenzie
Anthony Marino

Newton Resident Supporters

Jen Abbott
Dolores Acevedo-Garcia
Joan Ackerstein
Margaret Alexander
Christopher Allen
Cory Alperstein
Heather Amsden
Tammy Arcuri
Shannon Armstrong
Jessica Avery
Bryan Barash
Peter Barrer
Miranda Barrows
Peg Barrows
Steve Basque
Anya Bassett
Jonathan Bassett
Hisham Bedri
Yvonne Belanger
Joan Belle Isle
Carol Berlin
Mindy Berman
Eve Berne
Pia Bertelli
Carlos Blanco
Michelle Blauner
Deborah Blinder
John Bliss
Tamara Bliss
Pam Boiros
Judy Boroschek
Natasha Bracken
Karen Bray
Paula Bress
Mark Bridger
Maxine Bridger
Kathryn Brigham
Maureen Brodoff
Dan Brody
David Bronstein
Hillary Brown
Halina Brown
Ann Buxbaum
Lucy Caldwell-Stair
Marsha Canick
Kate Carleton
Natalia Carrelli
Nick Carter
Mike Champion
Alekhya Chaparala
Vanessa Cherubin Tintus
Ernie Cimino
Marisa Cimino
Carolyn Cogswell
Gilad Cohen
James Cohen
Nadine Cohen
Andrew Cohn
David Conklin
Holly Conviser
Amy Cook
Marcia Cooper
Ricardo Cortes
Lorraine Cox
Beverly Craig
Sallie Craig Huber
John Curran
Debbi Cutler
Anni Dai
Ed Dailey
Bill Dain
Ruth Dain
James Daniels
Deena David
Susan Davidoff
Bryan Decker
Alexis Deise
Jodi Detjen
Thekla Diehl
Sally DiLoreto
Peter Dimond
Patrick Dober
Lucia Dolan
Simon Dolan
Erika Drezner
Marian Dunshee
Kevin Dutt
David Ebb
Winnie Ebb
Sarah Ecker
Marc Eichen
Paul Eldrenkamp
Matthew Ender
Dottie Engler
Susan Ernst
Roxanne Etmekjian
Laurel Farnsworth
Isaac Feinhaus
Michael Feldman
Russel Feldman
Carol Fernandez
David Ferraro
Jessica Finch
Mark Fine
Diana Fisher-Gomberg
Larry Fishman
Shawn Fitzgibbons
Mike Fogelberg
Craig Forman
Russell Forman
Jane Frantz
Thomas Friedman
Carol Fulton
Tom Gagen
Josh Gahm
Noah Gans
George Gardner
Anne Gark
Annie Gatewood
Gloria Gavris
Yonatan Gazit
Robert Gifford
Nanci Ginty-Butler
Leona Giovannini
Arthur Glasgow
Marian Glasgow
Andy Gluck
Fran Godine
Barry Goldberg
Ellie Goldberg
Janet Goldenberg
Aaron Goldman
Arza Goldstein
Richard Goldwater
Robert Goldwater
Monica Gonzalez
Scott Gordon
Mark Gottesman
Mindy Gregory-Sieber
Geoffrey Grey
David Gullette
Holly Gunner
Helen Haley
Betsy Harper
Will Havemeyer
Candace Havens
Karen Haywood
Grey Held
Claudia Henderson
Sandra Herforth
Philip Herr
Anne Hess-Mahan
Lizbeth Heyer
Susan Heyman
Mary Ann Hill
Liz Hiser
Kathleen Hobson
Margaret Holland
William Holland
Larissa Hordynsky
David Hruska
Jonathan Hruska
Douglas Huber
Evan Hunt-Prague
Joe Hunter
Jody Isselbacher
Judy Jacobson
Christina Jameson
James Jampel
Cora Jeyadame
Marcia Johnson
Hubie Jones
Kathy Kaditz
Sunwoo Kahng
Jennifer Kales
Jonathan Kantar
Ruth Kantar
Marc Kaufman
Brendan Keegan