The Riverside draft special permit, the result of dozens of meetings, is now live.
The bicycle lanes and sidewalks should make access without a car safer and more pleasant–which is good news for the neighbors. The excess parking demanded by the MBTA remains, and that will drive traffic (available parking draws cars–although this will be paid, so it will drive fewer cars). The parking management for the rest of the site, and a plan for Traffic Demand Management, will mean fewer drivers for the morning and evening commutes, and that’s also good news for Newton.
The water and stormwater measures are also good news–we may see fewer sewage back-ups and overflows, and fewer pollutants running off into the nearby Charles, where they feed toxic algae and the water chestnuts.
Also on this week’s docket are five pre-proposals for Community Preservation Act funding. Have a look. Would you support these?
Regarding the CPA funds: I have been told that Newton won’t consider using CPA funds for playground repair/replacement, even though a recent change in the CPA law allows it, and other towns have begun to take advantage of it. Is this true, and if so, why? As it stands now, these city-owned community amenities are being maintained and/or replaced primarily with private (meaning school parent) fundraising. Or not being done.
The Land Use Committee will be meeting in a working session on Tuesday, July 23, at 7PM in Room 222 of City Hall. We have two other special permits that we be taking up first. I plan to take up the findings first, since it is necessary to find that a project satisfies the special permit criteria before considering conditions that mitigate the impact of the project. Once we conclude our deliberations regarding the findings we will take up the conditions. I have pledged to end the working session by 11PM, so it is highly unlikely that we will complete our deliberations this Tuesday night. The next working session is scheduled for Tuesday, July 30.
@Tricia: The Community Preservation Act does not allow for funds to be used for maintenance of facilities (outside of historic ones)–if it did, the CPA would be just another revenue stream for strapped municipalities to use to fund current operations. These are grant funds for one-time capital expenses like acquiring new open space, community housing, or parks, or for preserving historic properties (including documents, uniforms, flags and swords, apparently).
@Andrea – sorry, just came across your response two months later. There was a change to the law last year – CPA funds may now be used to rehab existing recreational facilities. In fact, according to this article, city officials were planning to apply to Newton’s CPA Committee for funds to do just that – not sure how that turned out. Here’s the link: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/west/2013/06/04/change-community-preservation-act-helps-make-playground-renovations-possible/IgXvKHQvXVe5Q67kXzJlNP/story.html