Needham plans denser, livelier downtown

[czsz]

A new mixed-use building recently completed on the edge of downtown Needham

NEEDHAM
Mixing it up for a livelier center
New heights, uses eyed for downtown
By John Dyer, Globe Correspondent | June 14, 2007

NEEDHAM -- Robert Rinaldi recently completed a mixed-use development in Needham, a three-story building with four condos on its upper floors and three retail shops at ground level -- a personal trainer's studio, a stationery store, and a women's clothing boutique.

"I took an urban idea and brought it into the suburbs," said the developer from Dover. "People want to get off a train and walk to their house."

It may be the new face of Needham.

The Planning Board is set to propose major zoning changes that would bulk up downtown, allowing the addition of a floor or two of apartments to the shops near the historic green in front of Town Hall.

The proposals are part of a master plan that will be discussed at a public workshop on June 25 at the Broadmeadow School, the second of three sessions that are expected to take place as the plan is finalized.

The changes could take a decade or more to come to fruition, depending on financing and the willingness of property owners to re develop, said Town Planner Lee Newman. But, conceptually, the master plan would duplicate on a larger scale the special zoning permits Rinaldi received to erect his white, Cape-style building at the corner of Great Plain Avenue and Maple Street.

Other potential changes include allowing a parking garage, more restaurants, a new cinema, and other amenities that would draw foot traffic and capitalize on Needham's four commuter-rail stations.

"We basically have a terrific downtown, and we want to make sure it grows and stays vibrant," said Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick, who expects Town Meeting members to vote on the plan in November.

The last time Needham decided to review its downtown zoning was nearly 20 years ago. Since then, the one- and two-story buildings have been frozen at their current height. People now want the town center to be a destination that is more attractive for commuters, for running errands during the day, and for going out in the evenings, Newman said.

"If you were here in 1989, you'd see almost identical buildings," she said. "There has been a re thinking of that and now the community is into redevelopment along smart-growth lines."

Economic changes have played a large role in the turnaround. Almost every piece of residential-zoned land in Needham has been developed, Newman said. Many older homes have been demolished to make way for newer, often larger houses.

Needham also lacks affordable housing, according to a two-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology study that Newman is using as the basis for the master plan.

The study found that nearly half of Needham's households earned more than $100,000, twice the amount of a decade ago. The median home price in the town was $527,000, the study found.

The master plan would seek to concentrate new apartment-style housing in the town center, and to encourage businesses to cater to those new residents and cultivate a sense of community for the town as a whole, Newman said.

The exact size of the area to be rezoned is still to be determined, but the MIT study examined changing zoning in an area that stretched from Needham Heights in the north to Needham Junction in the south.

Rinaldi, for example, is marketing the condos to older couples whose children have grown up and who are looking for simpler homes with easy access to local amenities.

Most Needham residents milling around the green on Friday embraced the idea of a spruced-up, buzzing town center, though many had concerns.

"I think it would give it a bit more of a feeling of a downtown," said Kitty McGorry, a former professional figure skater and a mother of three who recently moved to Needham from San Francisco. "It depends on the architecture. I'm foreseeing it as quaint and it might not be."

Computer consultant John Cudmore said he would support an expansion of downtown as long as officials prepared for an influx of cars. He already leaves his car at Walgreens when he takes his two children to play at the parks near the town center.

"I would be very worried about traffic," he said. "There's not enough parking for the parks. I would hope for a garage. That would alleviate some of the problem."

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

This is exactly what should be happening only in EVERY SUBURB IN AMERICA. That is the only way we will kick our oil dependency.

 

[Ron Newman]

They want a cinema? Great! But they should not have allowed this one to fall apart and then be demolished.

 

[czsz]

This is exactly what should be happening only in EVERY SUBURB IN AMERICA.

Not to mention the cities. One can hardly count the number of one-story commercial strips inside 128. Mass Ave. north of Harvard Square and Harvard Street in Brookline/Allston are conspicuous targets for this kind of development. The entire stretch of Blue Hill Ave. could be 4-5 story affordable housing.

They want a cinema? Great! But they should not have allowed this one to fall apart and then be demolished.

From what I remember, the old Needham Cinema was tied up in a divorce lawsuit for over a decade, during which it became structurally unsound and the town was forced to demolish. The owner and the town had always hoped to revive it.

A modern cinema might be a better draw (and more successful) anyway. Dedham's little cinema certainly doesn't get much use; a theatre like the Embassy in Waltham is probably what the town is looking at, especially since the town center has been transformed much like the aforementioned town's Moody Street, with half a dozen new upscale ethnic restaurants.

 

[Ron Newman]

I just wonder if the town could have ended the whole divorce-settlement mess with an eminent-domain taking, followed by a quick sale to a developer. Old theatres can be nice centerpieces for commercial areas -- see Lexington Center, Arlington Center, East Arlington, and Davis Square as examples.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

The entire stretch of Blue Hill Ave. could be 4-5 story affordable housing.

I am quoting this because this is all I ever think about when people talk about the lack of affordable housing in Boston.

 

[PerfectHandle]

The entire stretch of Blue Hill Ave. could be 4-5 story affordable housing.

I am quoting this because this is all I ever think about when people talk about the lack of affordable housing in Boston.

I agree wholeheartedly. Blue Hill drives me insane for that reason. So much wasted real estate.

Practically, that stretch needs to be better connected by public transit. Either that, or it needs to have a serious business district planted in the middle to make it self-sustaining.

 

[czsz]

New movie theater pitched
By Steven Ryan

Needham - It could be show time again in Needham as the Planning Board prepares to float several ideas ? including a movie theater ? for the revitalization of the downtown area at a workshop next week at the Broadmeadow School.
Needham hasn?t had an operational movie theater since the 1980s, when the cinema on Great Plain Avenue closed its doors. The property itself was in the epicenter of a complicated divorce battle between the former owner and his wife, which led the dilapidated cinema into becoming a downtown eyesore.
The theater was eventually torn down about six years ago after the Building Department determined that the cinema?s structural problems could lead to its collapse.
?It was a major loss for us when it closed down,? said Selectman Jerry Wasserman, who is unaware of any concrete plans for a new cinema. ?Ever since the cinema shut down, everyone I talked to wanted it to come back. We?d love to have another cinema in town.?
Planning Board Director Lee Newman said the Planning Board is focused right now only on the feasibility of a new cinema in the area of the movie theater?s former location.
?There?s interest in seeing if we can make that work,? Newman said. ?The initial conversation is around that block.?
Wasserman said it would be hard to tell what shape a new theater might take, noting that it likely wouldn?t show first-run movies.
Wasserman said that when the former movie theater was still in good condition, the town formed a citizens committee to recruit interest in the property. He said there were some possibilities. The former owner, Alvan Levenson, also expressed hopes in revitalizing the property if he could wrestle it away from a trust established by his ex-wife?s attorneys.
Levenson lost the property during a complex legal struggle in which several parcels he owned were placed in a trust while he attempted to pay the money he owed his wife as a result of his divorce agreement.
?Things got so tied up in litigation that it didn?t work out,? Wasserman said.
As for other hopes for the downtown area, Newman said the Planning Board would propose zoning changes at the workshop on Monday, June 25, which would include increasing the height restriction by a half-story on the Chestnut corridor, a move aimed at bringing in more mixed use. They also plan to suggest locations for structured parking downtown.
?We?ll test the waters to see if the support for our approaches is there,? Newman said.
The workshop is the second of a planned three meetings on the town?s vision for downtown. At the last meeting, residents were asked: What are the best features of Needham Center? What are the worst features? And what two things can be done to improve the downtown area?
Things most often cited as good aspects of Needham Center were access to Town Hall and its surroundings, and access to the commuter rail. But people were frustrated with the lack of variety in retail, empty storefronts, traffic and strict zoning laws. Common themes for suggested improvements were calls for underground parking and more mixed-use development.

 

[Ron Newman]

Wasserman said it would be hard to tell what shape a new theater might take, noting that it likely wouldn?t show first-run movies.

I don't think anyone builds new non-first-run cinemas anymore. The few second-run theatres that we still have around are all pre-1940s theatres, in Somerville, Arlington, Lexington, Belmont, Beverly, and Dedham. The Somerville is gradually repositioning itself as a first-run house.

 

[czsz]

First time for everything?