Fig City News reports that the City Council has just voted in support of two projects in West Newton
- 1314 Washington St in West Newton Square (the Santander building) – a mixed use project with 50 units of housing
- 106 River St – 9 units of housing
The Fig City News report on both projects was quite good in that it echoed many of the comments both pro and con that were voiced at the hearing by all the City Councilors – well done Fig City.
Good for our council for approving these two transit oriented projects and prioritizing bringing new housing and foot traffic to West Newton.
Greg you would be reprimanded by your bosses if you criticized one thing about any development.
where is the “transit”? Last time I checked, it’s really in Newton Centre, Waban and Highlands
I think this is overall positive, but I do have concerns given the stagnation of Dunstan.
Bugek – Mr. Reibman notably (and accurately) didn’t say public transit.
Because we all know that 95% of those new residents who commute will be in their personal vehicles. Similar to those at Trio and Austin Street.
Three cheers for a building. Near a road.
Well said, Mr. K.
On behalf of myself and our neighbors who live in *walking* distance to both sites, and Dunstan East, I look forward to Mayor Fuller’s eco-conscious jetpack rental plan to solve W Newton Sq gridlock.
Jetpack Override is coming in 2024.
Instead of the usual anti-development nihilism from the usual “concerned citizens”/get off my lawn crowd, wouldn’t it be nice if we actually worked towards solutions instead of nitpicking every new project?
Very good projects that got many more votes than needed to pass.
They will get built. The world will not end.
Isn’t it great? It wasn’t bad enough that the traffic redesign of West Newton Square is a total cluster that is literally putting small businesses out of business because of the traffic and lack of parking. Let’s pile on and make it substantially worse.
Many Newton residents drive through West Newton Square along Washington street every day because it is the route to many Newton businesses – including Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Marty’s, and the YMCA.
In 2017, the Newton government redesigned the square to accommodate bike lanes. As a result, the square has become much worse for drivers who now must change lanes at almost every light to cross the square. In addition, this increased congestion has not resulted in any bike traffic on the unused bike lanes, probably because the square is much more dangerous than it used to be for everyone – drivers, pedestrians, and bikers.
The Newton government has not acknowledged this design problem, nor expressed any desire to fix it. This is because such an acknowledgement is not in the interest of the anti-car real estate developers who run the city. Building another large building, with inadequate parking, in the center of West Newton Square will only add to this unacknowledged problem. More importantly, if the Mayor has her way with the proposed Village Center rezoning, then the traffic in all village centers will resemble West Newton Square, or worse. Residents who complain will be told they should ride their bikes or take non-existent public transit.
Newton residents need to start believing their own eyes and not the utopian power points, drawings, and guilt trips, of the Mayor’s Planning Department. People need their cars to get to work, take their children to activities, and shop. That’s the reality and people shouldn’t feel bad about trying to live in reality.
West Newton Square was redesigned because it was a crash hotspot and did not meet the standards for universal accessibility (non-compliant sidewalks and inadequate time to cross the street for pedestrians). According to the Newton Police, crashes are down significantly in the square from before the construction to both during and after the construction.
The change in lane configuration in West Newton Square is as much about pedestrian safety as it is about bike lanes. The addition of left- and right-turn only lanes allows for safer pedestrian crossings based on traffic signal control. It’s not perfect by any means: some crossings are not respected by drivers, and the delay to cross the street as a pedestrian is too long. But the pedestrian crossings themselves are shorter, allow for more time to cross, and are fully accessible by ADA standards.
Bike lanes were an integral part of the plan based on both city and state transportation policy. The bike lanes are currently not heavily used in part because they are a fragment of an in-development bike network that’s being planned now. Washington Street east of the square will go through a pilot lane reduction project that will connect West Newton Square to Newtonville with both sidewalks and bike lanes. This route is currently heavily used by Newton North High School students as well as bus commuters that must cross four lanes of traffic to reach their bus stops.
Bike networks can’t be built overnight. They are always built piece by piece. Yes, that means that some sections can look a little lonely, sometimes even for years. But installing them when major streetscape projects are happening is the only way to eventually get a connected network. The goal isn’t to have every person bike every day to every destination. The idea is to provide more options to more people for more trips, relieving a fraction of the traffic and parking burden for everyone else. At the same time, we have so many students biking, that we don’t have to say “build it and they will come”. They are out there, now, riding on sidewalks and dangerous street crossings. If those students were driving or being driven to school, we’d have a traffic and parking disaster. And if they road the bus, we’d have even more school expenses.
Yes, drivers are frustrated in the square. The city needs to, and is, continuing to adjust the signal timings to improve traffic flow. Signal operations are simply not where they need to be. However, that does not excuse the flagrantly illegal and dangerous behavior I see every day in the square, and throughout much of Newton. We simply shouldn’t excuse it, even while we try to make the square safer and more convenient for everyone.
Excellent response
Speaking of reality, how do opponents of the changes plan on dealing with the reality that people actually want to live in Newton, or if they have to live elsewhere, drive to or through Newton? Our economy is is very strong and people want to live here. Until that changes, wishing projects like this away does nothing to actually address the reality
Ted in communities that are planned in a sensible way it’s the city government that is the driver in planning allowable uses of each property. In Newton where developers money and connections rule, it’s the developers that plan how the city will look and function in the future. Look at how the process works in Wellesley and Brookline for two examples of communities with a more sensible (not perfect) process.
Jackson Joe: I get that people dislike developers. Fair enough. But how is Newton’s process developer-driven while other communities aren’t? No snark, it’d be good to know.
Let’s not forget the MAIN reason why people want to live in Newton – an idyllic suburb within a stone’s throw of Boston. That is why people invest to live here. And one day we will kick ourselves for letting it all slip away.
Stone’s throw from Boston. Spot on.
I came here for less density than Brookline. I liked the neighborhood feel with the convenience of having shops, restaurants up the st, At the time there was a larger range of housing stock and I like having a yard,
I agree with Debra that the City botched the West Newton Square traffic redesign. It’s a lesson to be learned, not a reason to stop the rezoning process throughout Newton’s village centers.
Ted’s got it right. People want to live in Newton for the same reasons all of us enjoy living here. And the fact of the matter is that Newton’s population today is still lower than it was in the 1960s. I’m glad the City issued the two Special Permits that are the subject of this thread, and I completely support the effort to rezone village centers.
The population is slightly less than it was at its peak in the ’60s – but there are now more than twice as many cars/trucks/SUVs registered in Newton.
This is NOT hyperbole.
WEST NEWTON SQUARE!!!!!!
THE GATEWAY TO HELL!!!!!!!
SET A NEW RECORD TODAY
ON MY DAILY WALK THRU THE REVITALIZED
SQUARE,
NEARLY RUN OVER 3 TIMES!!!!!!!
EACH PERSON GOT THE BIRD!!!!!!!!
I”LL BE BACK TOMORROW THOU!
I try to avoid West Newton Square like the plague. I drive all the way around and approach the Shell Gas station on Watertown Street going from east to West.
Anecdotally, we’ve switched over to Blue Ribbon BBQ’s Dedham location. They have a nice parking garage adjacent to the restaurant. Even though its a little farther from Thompsonville, it’s better than dealing with West Newton traffic and the lack of parking.
I started going to Comella’s in Wellesley over West Newton Sq. The last time parking was so frustrating. I was drove around for quite but even considering walking a distance I could not find any parking. I ended up parking somewhat illegally in a parking lot as I ran in to grab my now cold order.
Ted it’s a one word answer…..Money. This is what you get when you let free market forces run amok. Newton is not alone in this category, there are plenty of other areas (some worse) where redevelopment plans are formulated by developers instead of civic leaders.
OK. So how are Wellesley and Needham different?
@Ted they are not signatories of this agreement
https://housingtaskforce.mapc.org/
Which is the driving force. Housing for Boston offices.
Sounds like a line from a classic movie…
“(Mayor), your ego’s writing checks your (community) can’t (or shouldn’t have to) cash!”
#RegionalHousingTaskforce
Who can guess the movie?
Here’s the page with Mayor Fuller’s signature.
https://housingtaskforce.mapc.org/2018-compact
It’s all about jobs jobs jobs, as the politicians say.
Jobs jobs jobs requires housing housing housing. Will it be “affordable”? Hard to say. Probably not. Developers being required to set aside a certain portion to be “affordable” hardly sounds like a plan. There are highly paid biotech and med tech ( startup!) companies renting office space downtown, and some highly paid young workers there ( some I know ) live in Newton. It’s trendy to have downtown office space now, and heck only the overfunded startups and the overpaid law-firms can afford it. Teachers and firefighters? Not so much.
So Rick, what’s the plan for sending jobs out of Newton and/or Boston? That would help reduce housing costs if we were serious about it.
Ted, what would “sending” jobs out of Boston or Newton look like?
Chris, it would mean that we get so complacent about the escalating cost of living that businesses (and people) decide to move or do business in cheaper locales. Kind of like what is happening in California.
Ted if the population of Newton decreased at the same rate that they were leaving California, a grand total of 270 people would leave the Garden City
source: The state of California’s population declined 0.3% between 2021 and 2022, according to population estimates released Monday by the state Department of Finance.
Jackson Joe, I’m not saying Newton will necessarily lose population, at least not now. I’m saying it could happen in the future contrary to what many want to believe.
Ted – Ah, got it. By the term “plan for sending…” I thought you meant that government agencies should direct business to go to other locations in MA. Understood now however. Yes, excessive costs can and will eventually catch up with and overwhelm the advantages of clustering and agglomeration unless action is taken to increase housing supply and transportation bandwidth.
@Ted
Work from home
Offices outside of downtown Boston.
I’m surprised Boston (and surrounding coastal) is so popular given its going to be flooded a lot in the not so distant future.
https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2018/06/underwater-analysis-full-report.pdf
Rich Frank makes some strong points, and I agree that set-aside affordable units in otherwise expensive developments alone cannot reduce the shortage of affordable housing in the Greater Boston area. As for offices downtown, many companies and law firms have moved west. Believe it or not, offices in Newton Corner and elsewhere in Newton are less expensive. Many other companies are phasing out or reducing office space, allowing their employees to work from home much of the time. I suspect that the situation will never return to the status quo ante in terms of office time; business practice is evolving.
Some hope may lie in the conversion of office space downtown and elsewhere to residential apartments. Then the Reibman Principle may come to pass: a surfeit of apartments and condos and homes will lead to the lowering of rent and purchase prices. I just doubt that this hopeful scenario will ever come to pass, and I’d hate to see the Garden City be overwhelmed by automobiles and crowded schools. We need a city administration that carefully balances all the concerns.
No, the region needs to fill jobs to keep the regional economy cooking, and to attract skilled workers, we need reasonably priced housing for them. Greg and Ted are right about that basic fact. Now how to create and provide such housing- therein lies the great debate.
It seems to me that beyond the mega-developments and in-law flats and converted armories, we need to house people in office space no longer needed and now converted to residences. I haven’t heard of another idea of comparable possibility. Old firehouses won’t fill the need. As part of this solution, we will need to improve public transportation around such sites to keep roads free from endless traffic. The need is so great that every town has to participate, including the Garden City.
Hi Bob, You refer to reasonably priced housing. Where is the reasonably priced housing going up in Newton?
In most [but not all] cases it would cost more to convert an office building into a residential building, than it would to tear down the office building and replace it with an entirely new apartment building. I’ve owned both property types. They don’t convert easily.
The Armory is a different story altogether. The reason the Armory conversion works, is because the developer literally thought outside the box, basically attaching a much larger structure as an addition to the existing building. Major kudos to Mayor Fuller for standing by her vision for the Armory, despite the naysayers [myself included].
Massachusetts is dealing with two separate issues. A lack of housing and a lack of affordable housing. I think most people in Newton are resistant to more housing, but receptive to more affordable housing. Thus the conundrum.
Mike:
There was an article in Globe a few months back that talks about that. The BPDA hired a design firm to study all of Boston’s downtown for conversion possible buildings. The article said:
“Across North America, just three out of every 10 buildings Gensler has analyzed appear viable for potential conversion. In downtown Boston, that rate is even less: 10 of the 84 buildings Gensler studied — just shy of 12 percent — have a high enough score to warrant further review.”
Conversion is tough for many reasons. It does get done, especially when condo prices are high. If you get further subsidy, certainly more possible. The Armory is going to get low income housing tax credits for instance. And of course the Armory doesn’t have acquisition costs which is huge…
I say this a lot when it comes to housing though. It takes an “all of the above” approach for us to not become California. More conversions. More density. More building. More affordable. More transport. More subsidy. More leadership on the state level. etc.
“Massachusetts is dealing with two separate issues. A lack of housing and a lack of affordable housing. I think most people in Newton are resistant to more housing, but receptive to more affordable housing. Thus the conundrum.”
Overall, I agree, but I have come to believe that we need both types of housing: for the professionals and skilled high tech and Biotech types, and for the less affluent with few options in the tight housing market. True, many Newton residents have little enthusiasm for high-priced developments with some set-asides. But all options should be on the table.
I am disappointed to learn that not many largely vacant office towers can be converted to residential use. Oh, well.
Fig City News just announced that the beloved Artitudes in West Newton Square is closing. And so the Korffication of Newton continues.
https://figcitynews.com/2023/01/artitudes-is-closing/#
Deb, I hope you don’t mean to say that Korff is the reason that Artitudes is going out of business—because that simply isn’t the case. A lot of factors entered into the decision to close this beloved store—yes, one was the pending construction at the Santander bank property as well as the question of the future rent costs, now that the building in which Artitudes is located is owned by Korff. But there are also traffic and parking problems in the square. The after-effects of COVID are pulling down businesses, led to the demise of the cinema, which also impacts the small businesses there. And, sadly, with inflation, as well as a change in consumer buying habits, the market for the beautiful crafts that Artitudes carries has softened. It was a confluence of factors that led to the difficult decision to close the shop.
In order to come up with solutions to help best support Newton’s small businesses I think we first have to understand the real challenges they face. Finger pointing at a bogeyman doesn’t help. The businesses that remain in W.Newton are going to need support during the upcoming construction. What can the city do to make sure they’re viable? Can the developer do anything? What about the Newton community? Is this discussion happening at city hall?
Hi Laura – Much of what you are saying is true, in that people shop less at stores like Artitudes and more online, and this has nothing to do with Korff and other developers. In addition, I used to buy more work attire items at Artitudes and Folklorica. Now that I am semi-retired and working for home, however, I don’t shop there as much, and this effect of work-at-home is probably the same for many stores. I did buy a beautiful and functional travel purse as Artitudes last September and remember thinking I should come back at Christmas because I’d forgotten how great the store was. But then I didn’t go, something I regret now. [The Artitudes owner was also extremely helpful, and the purse worked out great on the trips I’ve taken since.]
However, both West Newton Square and the Walnut Street section of Newtonville do have “small store problems” that have everything to do with developers and their extreme power over City Hall. These problems are lack of parking and the incentive for property owners to raise rents and to leave their stores vacant for long periods of time if the increase drives their tenants away. The worst case of this was Newtonville Pet, a popular store that has now been closed and vacant for over 8 years.
The new proposed Village Center zoning will make these problems worse because the proposed zoning requires less parking than the current zoning while also allowing much denser development. The proposed density increase makes it more profitable for owners to leave a property vacant while waiting for the new zoning, and to eventually get rid of small stores in favor of large stores, including chain stores.
City Hall is trying to get rid of anything that is profitable for middleclass owners or operators of a property. This includes smaller single/two-family family homes and small businesses. Giant homes, apartment buildings, and chain stores are simply better for the financial elites who want to live in mansions and also need to own many properties to remain wealthy. And that is what is being pushed by City Hall.
Yikes, sorry. That should read Lauren, not Laura.
This is sad news. West Newton used to be a small destination for buying gifts…..I could buy stuff at Artitudes or Felix Doolittle or before that Morningsilver Gallery which for a while also had a whole separate room of unique toys. I hope we don’t lose Felix Doolittle because that store is a gem.
Plus, we’ve also lost an ice cream shop and two coffee shops. (L’Aroma and Keltic Krust)
I will say that West Newton has a better restaurant selection than it did. Paddy’s is as delicious as ever, Bluebird is a very cool spot with tasty food and drink, Blue Salt is a happening destination with tasty fare, and Burke’s Alewerks has the potential to be a solid neighborhood spot with excellent beer, trivia, and entertainment.
I’m not sure how many of these commentators live near West Newton Sq., but as someone who does, I think this project is another in a long line of poor projects approved by the City Council. For some reason the Council always approves what could be termed “over development “ for these projects.
For instance, if the developer proposed three story townhouses for this site which would fit nicely with the two and three story homes next door, neighbors wouldn’t have been outraged over this project. Maybe if the developer included a courtyard with outdoor space, the neighbors wouldn’t have been outraged. And maybe if the developer had built sufficient parking for those using the development, neighbors wouldn’t have been outraged.
Instead the developer did none of that and we got a way oversized building, no outdoor green space, a development waived 93 necessary parking spaces.
A good project? I don’t think so.
And btw, how can he build this project and leave Dunstan Street an empty lot? Common sense seems to be missing here.