Thirteen Villages & One Goal... Auburndale
Auburndale lies at the western end of Newton and, like Newtonville, West Newton and Newton Corner, is split by the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90). It is the home of Williams and Burr elementary schools and Lasell College. Auburndale village is the home of a few restaurants, small businesses, an art gallery and a large supermarket. Auburndale Square is the location of the Plummer Memorial Library, which is run by the Auburndale Community Library, and the Turtle Lane Playhouse.
Although some parts of the village lack parks and open space, the western end of Auburndale is well known for two historic parks, Norumbega and Auburndale Cove. Norumbega Park, which opened in June 1897, was a recreation area and amusement park located in “Auburndale-on-the-Charles” offering canoeing and pedal boating, a theater, gardens, restaurants, an arcade and ballroom and was built in an attempt to increase patronage on the trolley line running between Boston and Auburndale. The popularity of Norumbega Park and the Totem Pole Ballroom declined after WWII as the automobile and new and better roads signaled the end of many local amusement parks and closed in 1963.
Today the area is the site of the Marriott hotel. East of the hotel parking lot is an area about 10 acres in size known as the Norumbega Park Conservation Land. The Auburndale Cove Park and Playground (The “Cove”) is a popular jogging and dog walking site, offers ice skating in the winter, and a large sand pile for kids to enjoy as part of the playground. |
The village of Auburndale is home to a historic district which includes approximately 275 properties. Auburndale, which was first settled in the 1670’s has numerous homes and buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, the oldest of which stands at 473 Auburn St and was built in 1730.
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Like so much of Newton, Auburndale is being subjected to unwanted increased density and loss of the existing character of our neighborhoods, in particular in the Auburn Street – Crescent Street neighborhood. In the past few years, developers have bought mostly modestly sized single family and two family homes, and replaced them with monstrous luxury townhomes which dominate the lots they are built on, as well as the street façade itself. Myrtle Village, a seven-unit affordable rental development on Curve Street, was approved and granted CPA funds of $900k+. On top of this, Auburndale faces at least three major projects in the immediate future: The Riverside project on the MBTA site on Grove St; the City of Newton is proposing high-density housing for the former Parks & Recreation site on Crescent St (adjacent to Myrtle Village), and the Turtle Lane Playhouse property was sold to a developer in February 2014, again looking to build high-density housing on the one-acre lot.
Riverside
The Riverside Development Project is a mixed-use transit-oriented development on a portion of the Riverside MBTA parcel. The MBTA will maintain ownership of the land, from which the developer, B.H. Normandy, has an 85-year lease in order to create the proposed development. In late 2013 the Board of Aldermen approved by special permit the $350 million, 580,000 square foot, development that will bring 290 new apartments, a 10 story office building, retail space, and a community center to the MBTA-owned land off Route 128. |
A group of Newton Lower Falls and Auburndale residents was seeking to have the special permit overturned in Land Court, claiming the development would adversely impact the neighborhood and that the city’s public hearing process was flawed. The lawsuit, which has subsequently been dropped, argued that the development would reduce the number of parking spaces and force more people to park on residential streets. They also claimed the project will make their neighborhoods more unsafe for traffic and pedestrians. They claimed they were not allowed to ask direct questions about the plan during the public hearing and that the Board of Aldermen made its decision based on documents submitted after the public hearing. BH Normandy plans to begin development at the site in 2015.
Turtle Lane Playhouse Property
283 Melrose Street The Playhouse, dating back to the 1850’s, was first used as a public meeting house. It was originally Gothic Revival architecture typical of the period, but was later modified to remove the gables and look more Colonial Revival in style, and more recently had other additions including the theater itself. The property housed the playhouse for more than three decades until closing in 2012. |
The property sold on February 12, 2014 for $2,000,000 to Stephen Vona, a Newton developer, and a group of investors working as Turtle Lane, LLC. Vona went before the Newton Historical Commission on January 23rd, 2014 seeking approval of a partial demolition and addition. The commission voted to preferably preserve the building, putting a one-year moratorium on any demolition at the site. The sale is already raising concerns among neighbors who worry about over-development in the village. Rumored development on the one acre site with many mature trees could have a very negative impact on the overall feel of the village, as well as on traffic and parking.
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Surplusing of Parks & Rec Land, 70 Crescent Street
The 61,000 sq ft. lot, owned by the city and zoned for Public Use, was surplussed in Feb. 2012. A JAPG (Joint Advisory Planning Group) was formed and their recommendation was 8-20 housing units. Members of this JAPG group included architects, realtors, developers, and others predisposed to an outcome of housing. Of the four neighborhood members of the JAPG, three of them were against housing and felt their opinions were not even considered. The majority of the neighborhood was never informed of any of these plans or the process. Read more here. |
Demolitions & Loss of Tree Canopy in Auburndale
There has been a significant increase in the number of homes being torn down across Newton over the past three years. In Auburndale, the Auburn Street- Crescent Street neighborhood, zoned MR1, has been particularly hard hit. Many modest single and multi-family homes are being torn down and replaced with massive luxury townhouses which dominate the street scape, completely changing the character of the existing neighborhood. Read about other concerns on Crescent Street here.
Oftentimes, many mature trees are lost as part of the demolition process as developers clear cut a lot of all mature trees in order to make way for construction equipment and the new development. People want to live in Newton in part because of the canopy of trees, and open and green space. Newton's Tree Preservation Ordinance requires developers to replace trees over 8 inches in diameter with an equivalent number of caliper inches, or else pay money into the Tree Preservation Fund allowing for trees to be planted elsewhere in the city. However, until the recent tightening of Newton's Tree Preservation Ordinance, developers were increasingly asking sellers to let trees be cut before closing, to circumvent tree replacement requirements. One Auburndale house with such a tree-cutting contingency attached to its sale saw six 80 year-old trees cut down in one day. Read more about demolitions and associated tree loss here. |