At City Hall last night, more than 30 residents and land owners gathered to participate in a workshop organized by the city’s planning and development staff. After a short presentation of discussions to date, including the 2010 study done by MIT planning students, the group was sorted into individual discussion tables where participants brainstormed goals for shaping Needham Street’s future.

Interestingly, many of the seven discussion groups echoed some of the same sentiments about the qualities Needham Street should have in 20 years: better pedestrian experience; multimodal transportation options; a balanced mix of retail, office, and residential uses; more beneficial connections to the rest of Newton. In short, Needham Street should be a place one wants to be.

Eight of the city’s aldermen attended the meeting, including Lisle Baker, Deborah Crossley, Vicki Danberg, Ruthanne Fuller, John Rice, Amy Sangiolo, Charlie Shapiro, and Brian Yates. Mayor Setti Warren, who’s office has initiated these discussions, was attending a village meeting in West Newton and could not attend.

We look forward to seeing these conversations continue.

Want to voice your thoughts about the future of Needham Street? If so, then mark your calendar for a community meeting at 7pm on Thursday, April 14, in the War Memorial in City Hall.

The city’s Planning and Development Department is moving forward with its efforts to develop a “master plan” for the commercial corridor. These conversations will build on work done last fall by graduate urban planning students at MIT whose semester-long project envisioned some redevelopment options and recommended some implementation strategies to shaping future development along the commercial corridor.

The April 14 meeting, which is open to the public, will provide “a summary of the development ideas to date, and will invite participants to share their thoughts about what’s good and not so good about the existing conditions” on Needham Street. The planning department encourages property owners, business owners, and all interested Newton residents to attend this and subsequent meetings.

For more information, please contact Candace Havens, 617-796-1137, chavens@newtonma.gov.

Earlier posts on this topic:

• Needham Street 2.0
• Envisioning Needham Street

A group of residents held its first meeting tonight to initiate public deliberation of the potential redevelopment of the Newtonville’s underutilized Austin Street parking lot.

The Joint Area Planning Group (JAPG), whose members were appointed by the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen, is charged with evaluating potential uses of the site, possibly including housing, retail, and/or office space.

Members of the group include one direct abutter and 12 Newton residents who have professional backgrounds in architecture, housing, law, real estate, and urban planning. One member, from Needham, represents the interests of the abutting Swedenborgian Church.

Discussions of potential redevelopment of this site date back 3-5 years, often pitting residents who want housing in village centers against those who argue against development because of existing enrollments in the public schools.No doubt, JAPG will address questions about potential impacts on schools, as well as on parking, pedestrian flow, nearby retail space, and transportation. (Note that aldermen stipulated that any redevelopment proposal must retain 85 public parking spaces on site.)

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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.

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The Planning & Development Board will hold a public meeting on a proposed mixed-use development amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan , the document that provides guidance about how, where, and how much the city may grow and change in coming decades.

Mixed use development refers to the strategy of locating more than one type of land use (housing, retail, office space) in close proximity to one another and to existing infrastructure, like MBTA rail stops. For more information, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council offers a citizen’s guide to mixed-use zoning (PDF download).

The meeting, at 7:30pm on Thursday, February 24, at the Senior Center will include an overview of the findings and recommendations of the Mayor’s Mixed Use Task Force (MUTF). And, following the presentation, break-out groups will discuss separate elements of mixed-use development as they may relate to Newton: [Read more →]

Elected officials and volunteers from the business community will discuss two strategies for steering the city’s economic development efforts at 7pm on Tuesday, February 8.

The meeting’s discussion topics:

1. Status of Newton’s participation in the Economic Development Self-Assessment Tool (EDSAT) developed by the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University. For more information about how this tool may apply to Newton, please see Chris Steele’s earlier post, “A Look in the Economic Development Mirror.”
2. A Planning Department report on Business Improvement Districts (BID). To oversimplify, this strategy creates cash flow for village centers to do good things like host events, recruit retailers, and beautify the streetscape. Newton Villages has been encouraging these discussions and hosted the head of the Massachusetts Downtown Initiative last year for a tour of our village centers.

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