Garden City Preservation Society (GCPS) has launched a website to provide information on the volunteer group’s efforts to restore the area surrounding the Newton Centre T Station.

GCPS has had a busy year so far, starting with a NewtonSERVES project in April to clean up the grounds and prepare the soil for planting. Since then, the group launched a Dahlia bulb fundraising drive and a held flea market in May to raise $1,500. In June, Weston Nurseries installed foundation plants, volunteers removed dead and diseased trees, and the MBTA provided mulch for the planting areas.

Those interested in this helping with this volunteer project may want to attend the group’s pot luck dinner at 6:30pm on Thursday, July 22nd. It will be hosted by Ward 6 Alderman-at-Large Vicki Danberg at 30 Chase Street in Newton Centre. Contact For more information, contact GCPS.

On Tuesday night, Newton-based New England Development presented its proposal for redeveloping the site on Route 9 where the closed Omni Foods and other vacant buildings stand.

The proposed site plan, with a one-story building bordering Route 9 (at top) and additional retail and medical office space at center, two surface lots, a parking garage (bottom left), and a residential building at left. Click to enlarge.

The Chestnut Hill Square development, if completed as planned, would add 105,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 60,000 square feet of medical office space, a 50,000 square foot grocery store, and a 30,000-square-foot health club. The complex would also include 90 residential units (condos or apartments), which could be built at the same time or as a second phase. Approximately 900 parking spaces in two surface lots and a 4-level parking garage would serve the complex. [Read more →]

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.

Spring cleaning? You may want to consider donating items to a fundraiser for landscaping the Newton Centre “T” Station.

Fresh off of a NewtonSERVES project when volunteers worked all day to clear, weed, plant, and spread mulch in the planting areas around the historic Newton Centre “T” Station, the Garden City Preservation Society (GCPS) will host an indoor flea market on Saturday, May 8, to raise funds for landscaping efforts at the station.

GCPS’s Louis D’Arienzo is asking residents to scour their basements and attics for donations. Furniture and other items can be dropped off at the station only from 3-7pm on Friday, May 7. Baked goods for sale can be dropped off from 8-9am on the day of the flea market.

The group is also seeking volunteers to help set up for and staff the event. For more details, please email Louis.

During April, a group of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) students is studying pedestrian mobility in the city.

The group is focusing on improving pedestrian mobility in three village centers and in Chestnut Hill. For more details, download the complete research proposal (a PDF file).

[Read more →]

A small band of “guerrilla gardeners” who have been cleaning up neglected planting beds in public spaces around Newton Centre has — warning, pun pileup ahead — taken root, grown, and blossomed into a formal group whose goals are to restore and maintain those spaces — and hopefully more around the city.

Organized by residents Amy Surman and wife-and-husband team Georgi and Louis D’Arienzo, the aptly named Garden City Preservation Society (GCPS) is first focusing on the areas surrounding the Newton Centre “T” station.

Local lore suggests Frederick Law Olmsted, the renowned landscape architect who designed Boston’s Emerald Necklace, played a role in the landscaping of the Newton Centre “T” station. If true, the Olmsted connection may help the area garner grant money to support the site’s restoration and maintenance. [Read more →]