Looks like the hotly-contested City Council contests in Ward 1 has been been handed an interesting campaign issue.
John Mula, owner of the building on Watertown Street where Salvi’s barber shop and Johnnie’s Pizza & Smokehouse is located is looking to build a three-story, mixed-use building with parking under the building and two floors of residential units, The TAB’s Laura Lovett reports.
– and John has made accommodations for the biz to continue in operation during construction sited around the corner on Adams St.
Great place to go for the latest insider talk, and quite a selection of sugar bowl styles to chose from.
Should be an easy thumb up development.
Good for him, why is this news?
A campaign issue? I don’t see it. He’s a long-time and well-respected member of the community, and his proposal (3 stories on a main road, stores below, apartments above) fits the scale and character of the neighborhood. He’s done a great job with outreach too.
I’d be delighted to be wrong. But we have a small but vocal political group in this city that is always opposed to everything. And who could have imagined that a project that would have provided desperately needed senior housing on the site of a former car dealership would be so controversial? Seniors!
Looks like a great idea all around.
Bugek: 1. The building/business is iconic and will be razed/property re-purposed. 2. Try building anything other than than a single-family home here without many screaming “… but the character of the neighborhood!” (Although I think this project will sail pretty smoothly through City Council).
In theory, you have a point: It shouldn’t really be news… but in Newton it is. More page views this week for this story than any other; no close second.
I do hope we can get more projects like this, where seemingly people agree they fit into the character of the neighborhood, the developer is local, and they still add housing.
We have no shortage of single floor retail that could easily be turned into 2-4 story mixed use.
Agree, Bryan. I was recently walking through West Newton Square and felt that there were several buildings in the square that could turn into mixed use.
I believe several one story sections of the city were previously multi-storied but the upper stories were empty in the Great Depression. Property owners were still paying full taxes for empty space . Some took action to eliminate the empty space that still saved them money by reducing their taxes permanently. Those looking for more commercial or residential space in village centers should check out photos and old records to find these second and third stories and rebuild the.
Its a shame the report does not present some further details.
The property was found historically preserved back in February 2017. http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/83978
As per the Historic Commissions Rules a petitioner is allowed to come back 4 months later with alterations to the plan. They did so on July 27th, and the Commission approved the revised plan.
So Kudos to the Historic Commission and the Owner for working together to come up with plans that fit in with the neighborhood.