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 →]

According to the recommendations of the  Citizen Advisory Group (2009) and the City of Newton’s Comprehensive Plan (2007), our city’s long-term financial health will require moderate growth — some commercial and some residential development.

The Comprehensive Plan recommends “Flexible Moderate Growth” that “involves preservation of Newton’s residential amenities, strengthening of business in Newton’s village centers, and promotion of commercial development along Newton’s commercial corridors.” (Comprehensive Plan, page 6-7)

So, where can Newton grow? [Read more →]

BH Normandy Riverside LLC will present its latest plans for development of the MBTA Riverside site at the regular meeting of Newton’s Economic Development Commission.  The meeting is at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, January 12, in Room 209 in City Hall.

Plans dated 12/10/09:  Option A, Option B.