The majority of residents living in proposed historic districts in Newton Highlands and West Newton oppose the plans, Laura Lovett reports for the TAB.
Seventy-percent of West Newton residents surveyed and 55 percent of Newton Highlands residents said they are against turning their area into a historic district.
The survey, commissioned by the Planning Department, went out to 280 residents in Newton Highlands and of that 155 were returned, making the response rate 55 percent. In West Newton, 334 surveys were mailed out and 234 were returned, making it a 70 percent response rate.
As chairman of the Zoning and Planning Committee, I am going to sit down with the organizers of the groups that proposed the West Newton Hill and Newton Highlands local historic districts and discuss next steps soon. The results of the survey by the planning department should help these groups determine whether smaller districts would have the requisite local support or whether they would prefer to pursue one of the alternatives suggested by the City’s historic preservation planner. When these groups decide how they want to proceed, they can bring their proposals back to the committee. The public hearing on the proposed local historic districts will remain open until the committee is ready to make a recommendation to the full City Council.
One point needs clarification. In the article in the Newton TAB, local historic districts are referred to as “zoning.” That is not correct. Zoning is governed by Chapter 40A of the Massachusetts General Laws and the Newton Zoning Code, while local historic districts, and the process for creating them, is governed by Chapter 40C and an entirely different section of city ordinances. While some opponents have suggested that zoning reform can solve some or all of the problems addressed by establishing a local historic districts, they are quite different animals with very different purposes. Similarly, tear downs are not regulated by zoning, but instead are governed by Newton’s demolition delay ordinance, which is not part of the Zoning Code.
There is no specific timeline for wrapping up this process, although my intention is to have the Zoning and Planning committee make a final recommendation to the full City Council which can be voted on before the end of this term.