How should Newton react to large-scale real estate development? Join the discussion.

UPDATE. Please note the earlier start time.

Mayor Setti Warren has created a task force, a group of more than 20 volunteers who are meeting over the summer to determine how the city should react to large real estate developments, especially three large parcels: Riverside Station, Chestnut Hill Square, and Needham/Oak Street.

The Mayor’s Mixed-Use Development Task Force is examining relationships between economic development, neighborhood and environmental impacts, and affects on housing, schools, and transportation. “Mixed-use” is a planning term that refers to the development of “housing, civic uses, and commercial uses, including retail, restaurants, and offices” in close proximity to take advantage of existing infrastructure and transportation networks.

The mayor’s task force will be creating an amendment to the 2007 Newton Comprehensive Plan to specifically address large-scale mixed-use developments. The Comprehensive Plan’s mission is to

protect the rich choice among the City’s neighborhoods, some highly diverse and others not, some quite compact, others more open… to assure development densities well related to both neighborhood character and infrastructure capacity… [and] to assure promotion of a range of housing opportunities.

Sometimes those intentions will be in conflict, so [the city] need[s] a management system able to resolve conflicts while making decisions in ways that are predictable, fair, and cost-effective.

The Task Force will issue a report in September. More information can be found on the City’s website.

At the “Exploratory Public Workshop” on Thursday night,  members of the public can offer their thoughts and help shape upcoming recommendations from the Task Force.  Here are some questions the task force is wrestling with:

• What is “mixed use” and why focus on it?
• Where might such developments be located?
• How should they be designed?
• How much of what uses should they contain?
• What about housing?
• What about all forms of access?
• What about impacts on schools, taxes and the environment?
• How should such development be managed?

The meeting will be at the Newton Senior Center, 345 Walnut Street, Newtonville.