Macy's soon-to-be-vacant building in Chestnut Hill. (Source: City of Newton)

Within a week, Macy’s will vacate its Chestnut Hill location. This vacancy raises questions about (1) what will become of the building and (2) how a new use of that commercial space may affect the area.

Admittedly, while Chestnut Hill and Thompsonville are listed among the 13 villages of Newton, the area along Route 9 is today more of a commercial corridor than a village center. But its health has implications for its residential neighbors, for nearby villages like Newton Centre, and for Boston College, the city’s largest employer.

[Read more →]

The citizen members of Newton’s Planning and Development Board will host a public meeting to review a proposed “mixed-use” amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan. An earlier post explains both mixed use and the comprehensive plan.

These discussions are vital to defining how citizens can be involved in planning how our city will shape growth in coming decades. Please mark your calendars for 7:30pm on Thursday, March 17, in City Hall, Room 209.

[Read more →]

The proposed development of the former Omni Foods site on Route 9 awaits the approval of approximately $15 million in state funding, according to an article in Friday’s Boston Business Journal.

Newton-based New England Development hopes to obtain money from the state’s Infrastructure Investment Incentive Program, known as I-Cubed, to help finance public infrastructure improvements, especially changes to travel lanes and traffic controls along Route 9. These improvements were part of the package Newton aldermen approved last month.

Background: A summary of the board’s order.

Friday’s article notes that the largest previous disbursement from the I-Cubed program for a single project was $10 million for Somerville’s Assembly Square. The funding request for improvements around Chestnut Hill Square may be 50% higher.

The City of Newton’s planning department plans to track LEED-certified construction within the city. If you know of a building that has received or is intending to receive LEED Certification, please email Alexandra Ananth or call her at (617) 796.1121.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, only three projects in Newton have been LEED-certified to date:

1. The headquarters of MOCA Systems (silver) in Newton Corner,
2. A renovation of the offices of Chapman Construction/Design (platinum) in Newton Highlands
3. The Newton Centre branch of Wainwright Bank (gold)

[Read more →]

At a special meeting tonight, Newton’s Real Property Reuse Committee will vote whether to declare the Austin Street municipal parking lot in Newtonville surplus.

The vote is the sixth of some 13 steps the city must take if it wishes to make the property available for redevelopment. At the end of the process, the property could be put up for sale or leased to a developer.

The Austin Street lot, situated across the street from the Newtonville Shaw’s, measures just between 60,000 and 75,000 square feet of land and currently houses 85 parking spaces. According to the city and recent studies by citizen volunteers who formed the Housing Plan Initiative (HAPI), the lot is underutilized. [Read more →]

In a post from September, we posed the question, “And just what does ‘smart growth’ mean, and how does it apply to Newton?”

Yesterday, on Switchboard, the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kaid Benfield suggests the definition of “smart growth” needs updating. The original definition, he says, crafted more than a decade ago, falls short in these areas: [Read more →]