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. [Read more →]

The next meeting of the Mayor’s Mixed-Used Task Force, which is charged with clarifying the City’s vision for any future large, mixed-use developments, will be held on July 15th, at 6:30 pm, at City Hall.  The public is welcome.

(For an introduction to the MMUTF, go here.)

The 3rd meeting was yesterday, July 1. The agenda began with the topic of “Framing the Mixed Use Management Process” and a lengthy, initial discussion ensued about the approach this committee was charged with and will take. The main task is to create an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan, which will set forth non-regulatory policy on large scale, mixed use development and re-development.
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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 →]

I just got word that this week the Mayor is finalizing the membership of his new Transportation Advisory Committee.  If you care about Newton’s quality of life, and if you’re knowledgeable or simply interested in transportation, this is an opportunity you should consider.

From the City:

Have a special interest or expertise in transportation and want to serve your community? Let us know! Mayor Warren is establishing a new Transportation Advisory Committee and Newton residents are needed to assess the City’s accommodations for all modes of transportation including bicyclists, pedestrians, transit users, and motorists and will recommend ways to improve the infrastructure for all ages and abilities. For more information, please contact Andrew Warner, Community Outreach Coordinator, at 617-796-1103 or email your resume and/or letter of interest to awarner@newtonma.gov.

Among other docketed items aldermen will discuss tonight, the following relate to village centers:

1. In Newtonville, Paragon Global Partners Inc. has an application for a Class II automobile dealer license in the two-story office building at 259 Walnut Street.
2. In Newton Centre, Pie Bakery and Cafe is petitioning for a parking waiver (9 spaces) so that the restaurant will be allowed to add 24 more seats at 796 Beacon Street. This would double the amount of seating for customers. A public hearing may be scheduled for July 13.

On Tuesday, at the Economic Development Commission meeting — at 7:30pm in Room 209 — members will discuss recent discussions of redevelopment of city property at Austin Street and in the “Firefighter’s Triangle” in Newton Centre, the proposed development at Chestnut Hill Square, Business Improvement Districts, Needham Street, Riverside, and the recently formed Mixed-Use Task Force.

Merchants and residents are welcome to attend these public meetings.