The Boston-area’s Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) will hold its annual meeting in Newton in June.

The keynote speaker is Barbara G. Fields, New England Administrator of the federal Housing and Urban Development Regional Office. The MAPC announcement says she will be discussing “the Obama Administration’s priorities in housing and community economic development, especially as they relate to state and local programs.”

After her presentation, attendees will sort into four breakout discussions on:

• Successes in Multi-Family, Mixed-Use Development
• Regionalization of Housing Services
• Senior and Supportive Housing
• Fair Housing

Among MAPC’s housing goals for the Boston area is for

“18. The region’s seniors will have more housing choices and opportunities to downsize while staying in their own community.”

The meeting will run from 8:30-11:30am on Wednesday, June 1, at the Boston Marriott Newton, 2345 Commonwealth Avenue, in Auburndale. For more information on this meeting and to RSVP, please see MAPC’s event calendar.

Design of the mixed-use building by Newton-based Architects2, http://architects2boston.com/.

The big news this week has been the redevelopment of the vacant Omni Foods site on Route 9 in Chestnut Hill. That project, by Newton-based New England Development, has met with both begrudging approval and outright opposition, which you may have already read about in the Newton Tab, Newton Patch, and Newton Streets and Sidewalks.

Meanwhile, in Nonantum, a small, mixed-use development promises to bring five two-bedroom housing units, new retail space, and parking spaces into the village center. This project will take the place of a single-family house on Adams Street, just off Watertown Street.

This is exactly the kind of development recommended in Newton’s Comprehensive Plan. It will enable residents to walk to nearby shops, restaurants, and public transportation. Having more residents living in village centers, as the plan states, “would likely expand the available range of goods and services offered there. It would also increase the stock of affordable housing located close to employment centers and public transportation.” [Read more →]

A housing development in the northern edge of Chestnut Hill has won a national award from the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

ULI picked the Fairways and Carriage House at 33 Commonwealth to receive a Jack Kemp Workforce Housing 2010 Models of Excellence award. Only four developments nationwide received the award from 29 submissions. The other winning developments were in the District of Columbia, Denver, and Baltimore. [Read more →]

CNN Money’s new “list of America’s best small cities” places Newton in the number three spot.

Downsides: Traffic and the cost of housing.

Upsides: Mass transit and village centers, “Less than 45 minutes from downtown Boston via train, subway, or express bus, Newton is divided into 13 “villages” loaded with classic New England charm. Most have pedestrian-friendly shopping districts, parks, and playgrounds.”

The developers of the Riverside T station have rescheduled the community meeting that was recently canceled.  The next meeting will be held on Thursday June 17, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the Williams school.  (Map & directions here.)

This meeting will benefit from the recently released traffic study completed by the developer’s consultant, VHB.

For more information, visit http://www.riversidestation.info, the site of the Riverside Station Neighborhood Coalition:  the Lower Falls Improvement Association, the Lasell Neighborhood Association, and the Auburndale Community Association.

Despite a sluggish economy, city officials, developers, and community groups are coming together to discuss proposed commercial and residential property development projects in several locations around the city.

At tonight’s meeting of the Real Property Reuse Committee, which “reviews the sale or lease of city-owned property,” Aldermen Danberg, Merrill, Linsky, Salvucci, Gentile, Baker, and Fischman will discuss two proposals:

First, in Newton Centre, the group will examine a proposal to redevelop a triangle of city property located at Willow, Centre and Lyman Streets, where the Fire Department headquarters and Station #3 sit. [Read more →]