Category — Riverside*

Two rent-by-the-hour cars are now available in the “triangle” parking lot on Langley Road. Zipcar members may reserve the Toyota Prius ($7.50/hour) or the Nissan Altima Hybrid ($11.50/hour).

The spaces are leased to Zipcar, the Cambridge-based car-sharing company. If this one-year trial program proves successful, the program may be expanded to other village centers in Newton.

To date, the city has three Zipcar locations: Newton Center and the MBTA stops at Woodland and Riverside. Zipcar locations in neighboring towns include Brookline (20 locations), Watertown (4), and Waltham (1). Zipcars are not yet available in Wellesley, Needham, or Dedham.

Newton resident and architect John Pears, who has served on our board of directors since the inception of Newton Villages, spoke last night at the community meeting about the proposed development at the Riverside MBTA property.

In today’s Boston Globe article by Stewart Bishop, Pears was quoted saying:

I think the way is sits now there’s a good mix of office, residential and retail.  I think its good they reduced the office and increased the residential  They’ve got the right mix, but it needs some tweaking on the site,” Pears said.

Although he said he still had concerns about the design of the project, Pears said he was not too concerned about the increased traffic the growth would bring.

They’ve put, in my opinion, a huge amount of time into the traffic thing.  I’m a big fan of, not rotaries, but roundabouts, they work very well.  I’ve watched them in London and in Holland and they just work fabulously, and pedestrians can use them very effectively as well,” Pears said.  “I think the volume of traffic will increase but the new design will even it all out.  It might not be better than it is now, but I don’t believe it will be worse.

The article did not mention the Riverside Station Neighborhood Coalition, which has done an excellent job getting the word out, organizing residents, and defining potential neighborhood impacts. In fact, the group has brought concerns to the developer and to city officials that may have otherwise been overlooked.

But this is an important conversation for all Newton residents and businesses — and even for our neighbors, near and far, who are also stakeholders in what happens at Riverside. It is commendable that the public conversation over the past year has not solely focused on the negative impacts of change. Instead, the community is weighing both the costs and the benefits in its decision-making process. We look forward to this conversation continuing.

In a post yesterday, “livable communities” blogger Steve Miller suggested a healthy environment requires three things:

1. Smart Growth,
2. Active Transportation, and
3. Human-Scale Architecture.

This year, we’ve written about smart growth, some definitions of it, and how its principles might apply in the context of Newton. At the same time, a Mixed Use Task Force, created by Newton Mayor Setti Warren, worked to clarify the vision of the 2007 Newton Comprehensive Plan as it relates to large commercial/residential developments. These conversations should continue.

Also this year, the mayor founded a Transportation Advisory Committee , including Newton Villages co-founder Matt Cuddy, to help shape our transportation system, “enhance the quality of life in Newton’s neighborhoods and village centers,” involve a broad base of citizens in the conversation, and develop a long-term framework for policy and implementation. Good stuff.

[Read more →]

A futurist view?

File this under “wishful thinking,” but… [Read more →]

You may have thought once or twice before, “Why do developers do our planning for us?  They tell us what they want, and we react.  Why don’t we have our own vision?”

Mayor Warren has convened a committee to create that vision–the Comprehensive Plan Mixed Use Task Force (MUTF). The group is led by the rightly esteemed Phil Herr, who led the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee that gave us our 2007 Plan.

[NOTE:  Two Newton Villagers (Andrea Kelley and John Pears) are serving on the MUTF.  As updates on the MUTF work are available, we will post them here.]

[Read more →]