About Us... Making Progress
The Newton Villages Alliance is Newton's community preservation advocacy organization and connects people from different village and neighborhood groups to share information and support. If you are not yet on the NVA mailing list you can sign up to get our email updates here...
Lots of Good News:
Lots of Good News:
Perhaps the biggest achievement of the NVA and village and neighborhood groups working together has been the successful campaign to convince for the Administration to prove it had the land area, and then to make the invocation of the 1.5% Land Area Minimum standard for satisfying Chapter 40B. This achievement means the Zoning Board of Appeals now has the power to demand smaller, better, greener, higher-percentage-of-affordable units, more-units-set-aside-for-Newton-residents projects or to deny permits altogether to projects that are simply too big or intrusive or not wanted. Those who support big developers/developments for strategic political or other reasons don't want Newton to be able to control its own destiny when it comes to land use. It's far more convenient to be able to say, "There's nothing we can do to stop it, it's a 40B!" , particularly if a friend or campaign contributor is the developer or attorney profiting from it. But we, the residents, worked hard for that 1.5% invocation and the mayor and our city councilors must must be reminded that we want them to protect that 1.5% achievement, because it is already helping us. How?
We need commercial sites to remain commercial sites producing commercial tax revenue because our city faces more than $1 billion in unfunded liabilities. Along with commercial sites, property speculators wish to gobble up our open space and public amenities. But residents have organized, and they prevailed recently:
Because of regaining local control over 40B proposals, that means developers are less likely to propose oversized Special Permit projects with the implicit threat of doing a 40B if the Special Permit isn't granted. Now that the 40B whip is gone, the Land Use Committee (LUC) of the City Council has been able to be tougher with Special Permit requests lately:
Every part of Newton is being targeted by property speculators - whether they're tearing down modest houses your kids might have afforded to put up $4 million McMansions or million-dollar condos and "townhomes", or whether they're taking our commercial tax base, wooded properties or public property (like Newtonville's village parking lot) to build massive "mixed-use" apartment buildings. Right now Newtonville and Waban are particularly under siege, but these profiteers are everywhere in Newton. Because of our location, the reputation of our schools, and our amenities and infrastructure, Newton is a rich target. Developers can build high-density and expensive housing and cram more and more people willing to live in "units" or pay millions for a house just to be in Newton. If the people who already live here are displaced by development or suffer higher costs and much lower quality of life, why would the developers care? They are making a killing.
The question isn't why do the developers do it (profit), the question is why do our elected leaders allow them to do it? It would be prudent to pay attention to the Administration's agenda for high-density urbanization and gentrification, and to which city councilors are helping to advance it. They'll say they're doing it for "affordable housing", except it makes housing less affordable for most. They'll say they're doing it to be "green", as they authorize the clear-cutting of trees and the paving over of green space. Everyone needs to know which politicians are working for developers. And more people have to vote in local elections, and vote only for candidates who work for residents. Organizing is the logical response to the property speculators' ongoing Newton land grab, and it works. Don't be deterred by the travesty of Austin Street and the outrage of Court Street. Residents are gaining ground in the effort to save our community, and they're doing it by organizing now, and hopefully by how they vote in the next local elections in 2017.
- The 135-unit Rowe Street 40B proposal was withdrawn, keeping that commercial site on the commercial tax roles.
- The Goddard Street 40B was reduced in size, saving scores of trees on a site in a single-family neighborhood adjacent to conservation land.
We need commercial sites to remain commercial sites producing commercial tax revenue because our city faces more than $1 billion in unfunded liabilities. Along with commercial sites, property speculators wish to gobble up our open space and public amenities. But residents have organized, and they prevailed recently:
- Residents in Chestnut Hill successfully advocated to prevent high-density housing development on the Waban Hill Reservoir site, and instead got it preserved for use as a new park. The NVA and people from outside of Chestnut Hill wrote and spoke in support. Any open space saved anywhere in Newton is good for all of us.
- Newton's Tree Ordinance was strengthened.
- Residents in Auburndale and West Newton and the NVA campaigned to prevent our publicly-owned Parks and Recreation land at Crescent Street from being turned over to a developer for high-density housing. In a compromise crafted by City Councilor Lenny Gentile, with support from City Councilor Jim Cote in particular, the housing will be limited to 8 units and some of our Parks and Recreation land will be used as a park.
- Residents in Newton Centre have organized to convince Mayor Warren to secure a conservation easement on the Webster Woods to prevent Boston College from building high-density dorms or other housing on these unspoilt woodlands.
Because of regaining local control over 40B proposals, that means developers are less likely to propose oversized Special Permit projects with the implicit threat of doing a 40B if the Special Permit isn't granted. Now that the 40B whip is gone, the Land Use Committee (LUC) of the City Council has been able to be tougher with Special Permit requests lately:
- Residents organized and the LUC denied a special permit to the developer who wanted to put 5 units and an underground garage into a mostly single-family West Newton neighborhood at South Gate.
- Residents organized and got the Turtle Lane proposal reduced from 29 to 16 units, greatly increased setbacks and got a proposed restaurant that really upset abutters removed from the proposal.
Every part of Newton is being targeted by property speculators - whether they're tearing down modest houses your kids might have afforded to put up $4 million McMansions or million-dollar condos and "townhomes", or whether they're taking our commercial tax base, wooded properties or public property (like Newtonville's village parking lot) to build massive "mixed-use" apartment buildings. Right now Newtonville and Waban are particularly under siege, but these profiteers are everywhere in Newton. Because of our location, the reputation of our schools, and our amenities and infrastructure, Newton is a rich target. Developers can build high-density and expensive housing and cram more and more people willing to live in "units" or pay millions for a house just to be in Newton. If the people who already live here are displaced by development or suffer higher costs and much lower quality of life, why would the developers care? They are making a killing.
The question isn't why do the developers do it (profit), the question is why do our elected leaders allow them to do it? It would be prudent to pay attention to the Administration's agenda for high-density urbanization and gentrification, and to which city councilors are helping to advance it. They'll say they're doing it for "affordable housing", except it makes housing less affordable for most. They'll say they're doing it to be "green", as they authorize the clear-cutting of trees and the paving over of green space. Everyone needs to know which politicians are working for developers. And more people have to vote in local elections, and vote only for candidates who work for residents. Organizing is the logical response to the property speculators' ongoing Newton land grab, and it works. Don't be deterred by the travesty of Austin Street and the outrage of Court Street. Residents are gaining ground in the effort to save our community, and they're doing it by organizing now, and hopefully by how they vote in the next local elections in 2017.
