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Coming Up (Jan 27-Feb 2)
Tonight (Monday): Zoning & Planning Committee 7 PM Chamber/211 - I’m not a member of this committee, but I wanted to make sure people were aware that the committee is holding a recap discussion with the Planning Department about where things stand on the comprehensive zoning redesign process and the history of how we got to the point where we are now. If you can’t attend, there was a memo distributed publicly to Councilors to explain all of this and to explain what “context-based” zoning means. The Planning Department has been extremely responsive over the past couple of years to public feedback, suggestions, and criticisms of their early drafts of zoning redesign, and they are very willing to incorporate things that you point out as residents about your own neighborhoods, to make sure that we get this right. The zoning redesign is attempting to achieve (or reconcile where they conflict) a very broad range of objectives like keeping most of our neighborhoods similar to what they are now, adding additional housing capacity in certain areas where we think we can fit it, substantially reducing the number of teardowns (and by extension allowing ordinary people to buy homes here without bidding against developers as often), promoting environmental sustainability, revitalizing our village center commercial/business districts, simplifying the approval process for ordinary homeowners to make renovations, and much more. This zoning redesign, which if adopted would be our first all-encompassing new zoning code in close to 70 years, is something that we want as many residents as possible to be satisfied with and comfortable with. While the “context-based” approach to zoning that we have been pursuing in Newton may be innovative and cutting-edge in some ways, in other ways, it’s actually quite conservative in how much it works to preserve what is already here, rather than dramatically re-zoning everything. It is also uniquely tailorable to our city (or any city where it is used as the approach) compared to traditional zoning approaches. If you have an idea for how to tailor things in your neighborhood in the next draft, now is the time to let us know.
Tuesday: Land Use Committee 7 PM Council Chambers - I’m also not a member of this committee, but this is a public hearing on the special permit for the negotiated compromise deal for the Riverside T station development. If you have public comments to make or just want to hear the latest details of a project proposal that has significantly changed many times over the past couple years, you might want to attend. If you are unable to attend but you have a comment on this special permit (or any special permit) to submit for the Councilors to read, please email the entire City Council at citycouncil at newtonma.gov. My advice for effective advocacy to your elected officials, as a current official and former longtime activist, is to try to make your comment specific and differentiated from other comments/emails so that it stands out. And make sure that you include your address so we have a sense of the distribution of comments! A project of this scale and its location means it is something that will affect our entire city, but it’s still helpful to know where people are writing from.
Wednesday: Finance Committee 7 PM Room 211 - This is a pretty straightforward meeting, our first of the term, to authorize snow/ice removal funding, fire/rescue salary money, technology upgrade money for the Williams Elementary School, and the use of grant money from the US FDA and the Mass Dept of Housing & Community Development (the latter is for a feasibility study on converting the West Newton Armory to 100% affordable housing).
Also as a head’s up: next Monday, Feb 3, there’s a full City Council meeting.
Week-in-Review Highlights
This past Wednesday: DPW discussion (including some good Ward 5 news!), Programs & Services
DPW Discussion: As part of the Public Facilities Committee meeting, the Dept of Public Works was kind enough to give a presentation on their current and upcoming projects, not just for that committee but also for the newly elected city councilors who are not on that committee. We were also given guidance on where to direct various constituent concerns about public works issues. As a reminder, which they underscored, the best way you can get a report in on a specific problem like a pothole is to use the city’s 311 system first, so that they have a record. If you haven’t heard back for a week, or you have a question about something long-term rather than a problem to report, you can then email one or more of your city councilors for us to follow up. In many cases, depending on the type of problem you’re reporting, it might be handled in as few as 3 days, sometimes even faster, if you use the 311 system. We also got to hear some fun facts about our incredible DPW team and the logistics of keeping everything running as smoothly as possible. For example, did you know that Newton DPW has in-house capacity to plow snow for storms of up to around 3 or so inches? For larger snow storms the city then has to bring in outside contractors. Finally – and perhaps of the greatest interest to Ward 5 and Ward 6 residents who live nearby – some DPW announcements: 1. The Newton Fire Department has signed off on a raised speed table for the entire Beethoven Ave & Puritan Rd intersection. 2. Bumpouts are coming on Allen Ave at the Pine Ridge and Plainfield intersections. I think almost every single person I talked to during the campaign last year who lives on Beethoven Ave expressed concern over the speeding and blind intersection at Puritan. Neighbors have been fighting for change here for years and years, and it looks like things are finally about to move.
Programs & Services Committee: We met this week to vote on 4 youth commission appointments, and 2 Council on Aging appointments, as well as to discuss internally some of our committee’s priorities for the year or possible ideas for legislation (I certainly have a lot myself!). The committee handles a wide range of City Council matters from appointments to citizen petitions to Council rules and charter reform to environmental policy to election reform to many of the titular programs and services our city offers. We have a really great group of people on the committee this term, and it was wonderful to have a unique opportunity to hear from Newton teen activists and a senior activist in the same meeting. It takes a whole spectrum of people to make our city great!
Thursday: Upper Falls Area Council - I will keep my notes brief since I had to keep my notes brief on Thursday due to not having internet access during the meeting. The two key takeaways (other than that the Area Council has filled its vacancies and has sent a letter to Mass DOT about the traffic light configuration at Christina St / Needham St / Oak St) are that two events have been scheduled:
Upper Falls Village Day tentative date: Sunday Sept 13 11AM to 1:30 PM
There will be a 4-Area Council-sponsored Informational Forum on Northland Referendum Sunday Feb 16 2-4 at Zervas. (It is, as far as I know, mostly being organized by opponents of the project although they say they intend to have a neutral moderator and presentations by both campaigns.
Weekend: MMA Conference, Democratic Party events
This weekend there was a conference by the Mass Municipal Association where elected officials and municipal staff from all across the Commonwealth came together to learn best practices and exchange ideas. It was great to see how many of my friends and acquaintances are now my colleagues in elected office across the state and to hear what they are working on in their cities or towns. A lot of us face the same challenges and opportunities. I also really enjoyed the opportunity at the “trade show” to skip past various corporate vendors and just talk to state departmental staff and federal EPA workers who are all there to help local governments understand state and federal programs they can benefit from. Also, if you need to know what invasive species to keep an eye out for, I brought home a lot of materials from the Department of Agriculture, so just let me know!
The Ward 5 Democrats met on Sunday afternoon to hear from candidates in various Democratic Primaries (including me as a candidate for Democratic State Committee on March 3rd) and to talk about what our Ward 5 City Council delegation has been working on. Then I headed to the Riverside Office Park to the campaign offices of Senator Ed Markey who is seeking re-election on the Sept 1 ballot. (You can read why I’ve endorsed him here.) Markey supporters in Newton, please attend the March 15 Democratic caucuses at 3 PM @ NSHS to run for or elect pro-Markey state convention delegates!