Meeting Notes

Thank you to our three aldermen, Maria Scibelli Greenberg, Alison Leary, and John Oliver, for joining us at our June NCNA meeting. The next meeting will be on Thursday, September 7, at 7:30 PM. Important neighborhood issues:

1. 41 Washington Street: Maria reported that the building application still needs to be approved by Mass Housing (according to the lawyer), and there are still questions that require a response. It is hoped that the ruling will be made by July 1.

2. Farlow Park: Representative Kay Kahn requested $150K for pond and park maintenance, of which $50K was approved. Senator Creem requested an additional $50K which still needs approval by Ways and Means. In addition, it is hoped that Mayor Fuller will appropriate some of the remaining ARPA money for the park. The NCNA is still waiting for information on the bidding process to repair the bottom of the pond.

3. Dan Shaw raised an important issue regarding preserving the gazebo behind the Chaffin House. This will be addressed in our next meeting on September 7.

4. PLAAN, or Planning for a Livable and All-Age Friendly Newton, is a set of recommendations made by the Newton Council on Aging and the Department of Senior Services in recognition of the census-based projection that by 2030, 1 out of 3 Newtonites will be 60 or older. This will be discussed at greater length in the September meeting as well.

5. Kate Parker, a Behavior Therapist in the Newton School System for 18 years, provided an overview of the current contract negotiations between the Newton Teacher’s Association and the School Committee. For more information (from the teachers’ perspective), please visit linktr.ee/ntaresources.

6. Department of Transportation Rotary Project
There was a general sense that far more information was being shared with some parts of the city government than others. Maria will reach out to the DOT Project Manager and again request the information they’ve gathered over the last nine months that they have not yet been willing to share. Nate Gibson continues to soldier on in his attempts to acquire this information. He will update us again at the next meeting.

7. Changes in Village Center Re-Zoning Proposals
Version 1 vs. Version 2 The general takeaway from a review of the modifications in the zoning (which will be presented in detail in a separate discussion) was that boundaries believed to be “Definite” in Version 1 have become more flexible in Version 2. The introduction of the MRT or Multi Resident Transit Zone will allow much greater housing density on a site. No official parking minimums will be required, but it is assumed that builders will add them in. (One NCNA member dismissed this as “magical thinking”). There is also the possibility of exceeding the height level previously defined in Version 1 if the builder includes more affordable housing than the standard required for Newton.

8. Underwood/Ward School Facility and Enrollment Study
Newton Corner in a post-Covid world There were several important takeaways from the discussion about the future of Underwood School and what it means for the neighborhood.

First: What are the knowns and the unknowns about predicting enrollment? A significant unknown is the impact of working from home on the distribution of families with children. Having a good school in the neighborhood would seem to increase the viability of working from home. A second unknown is the impact of building smaller homes. It has been assumed that smaller, more affordable homes will increase the number of students, but the results so far are mixed. While the Trio development has provided little of an increase in student enrollment, the Austin Street project has increased enrollment at Cabot School.

Second: It is important to directly engage with school committee members to tell them how important the school is to the neighborhood, so please send emails! In the same vein, John Oliver has offered to invite the incoming superintendent of Newton Public Schools to a picnic in Farlow Park this summer or fall to learn more about the school and the neighborhood.

Third: We need to start thinking about Newton Corner in a post-Covid world as a working community, not a bedroom community. We need places for those who work from home to go mid-day—coffee shops, places to meet with clients (rooms in Chaffin House?) We have suffered serious disinvestment with the loss of the city’s library and our branch library (much less the impact of the Mass Pike!). We need to reimagine who we are and what we can offer to those seeking to live here. Underwood School is a critical part of this process.