The Waban Area Council met with the developer of the St. Philip Neri site earlier this month. You can read their report of the meeting on the area council’s website (scroll down).
40B project considered for St. Philip Neri site in Waban
by Greg Reibman | Sep 30, 2014 | Waban | 11 comments
Has the potential Court St. project followed a similar approach with promised community meetings, consultations with Newton government, etc.?
48 UNITS! And lets just say each unit has one kid – 48 new kids into a school system that is BURSTING – system wide! I can’t imagine traffic either. I was at the last Waban Area Council meeting and they were discussing a traffic study, whih I thought was almost a joke. If they do a traffic study now, there is LESS traffic there due to Angier at Carr.
It is time to plan for kids! At all levels and schools.
The Waban Area Council St. Philip Neri Working Group has already helped to facilitate a meeting of a small group of close by neighbors of the St. Philip Neri Church property with the developer and his attorney. That meeting took place on September 22 and the Report of that meeting will soon be uploaded onto the Waban Area Council website (wabanareacouncil.com) under the St. Philip Neri Issue. It is our (Waban Area Council) intention to keep the community in touch with the developer (and vice versa) and to facilitate the flow of information. A second meeting of other close by neighbors with the developer is scheduled within the next week and the developer has reiterated that he wishes to engage with the broader community by the end of October or early in November. He has also emphasized that nothing is carved in stone and he welcomes community input.
A 48-unit development at the corner of Chestnut and Beacon? That’s a fantastic idea.
Said nobody who wasn’t making a small fortune on this deal.
But wait there’s more… a proposed 40B at 47 Goddard St in Newton Highlands, an SR3 zoned neighborhood. Yes, SINGLE RESIDENCE zoned! Are you kidding me?
http://www.newtonma.gov/gov/planning/current/devrev/hip/goddard_street.asp
Our esteemed Planning Department states that it’s “proximate to the Needham Street Corridor and Newton Upper Falls village” seemingly giving the thumbs up that this is an appropriate location. Heck, Newton is a small city straddling major highways – pretty much everything is close to a village center, bus route, major road, train station, or highway.
@Sallee –
“He has also emphasized that nothing is carved in stone and he welcomes community input.”
Yes, and Scott Oran also welcomed community input for his unfriendly 40B proposal for 70 Rowe St. I for one am not holding my breath that he’ll willingly reduce the scope of that 150 unit project.
Peter – the Goddard St. project would only add 2 units to what’s already there. Really, a change from 3 to 5 dwellings is not that big a deal, nothing like what’s being proposed for the Neri site.
@mgwa. It’s a vacant lot so it’s adding 5 units. You are missing my point though. This is an SR3 zoned neighborhood.
We will see if the Mayor treats the Waban 40B differently than the 40B in other villages. As much as I don’t agree with Mike S. regarding the Mayor’s powers here, it will be interesting to see if he is as “passive” with this particular 40B.
As for the Goddard St. project, mgwa has it right. 5 units for a vacant lot doesn’t raise the same level of concern.
On projects that size we’ve got a push/pull of property rights vs. community impacts. I think the larger 40Bs are different in scope and potential community changes (and hopefully mitigation).
Finally, I will say that we are reaping what we have sowed. Property values in Newton have skyrocketed over the past two years. I’d say at least a 15% increase. Deals now pencil out in Newton that didn’t before. And the demand is there. There is a plus side for every retiree and homeowner. Extremely tough on young families and the elderly with higher property taxes though.
Coming from Court Street, I would simply say that nobody should believe anything said or written by:
The Developer
The Mayor
The Planning Department
The Health Department
The Traffic Division
or any other city office
The latest memo from the Newton Planning Department to the Zoning Board of Appeal states ‘this project is adjacent to the Green Line’.
Need I say more?
@fig. So would you be okay with 5 units being crammed onto a single family zoned property next door to you? Density 2-3X what’s allowed, little to no open space, 39 ft high home likely towering above your home and blocking significant amounts of light and air flow, 10 vehicles. We might as well not have zoning because for MR zoned areas one can get a special permit to cram in 4-5 units where 2 is allowed by right, and now seemingly 40B is the answer to do much the same and override all zoning in SR zoned neighborhoods. Yes, I agree the 36, 48, 150, 300+ unit projects will severely impact an entire village, but these “neighborhood” 40B’s are as devastating in the way they will impact a specific neighborhood. I for one would prefer to maintain a reasonable open space and greenery on my street and in my neighborhood. That’s why I chose to live in Newton as opposed to the more densely developed cities like Cambridge and Somerville.