Newton Infill and Small Developments

jms13 said:
Catching up on some emails, and from the Mayor's newsletter last week, we've got a 40B submission by Toll Brothers for the Sam White & Sons landscaping lot on the south side of Rt 9 (528 Boylson St), just a bit northwest of the Dudley Road site that's been under discussion. Six stories, 244 apartments total (95 1br, 122 2br, 27 3br), 25% affordable, 385 parking spaces, all but 10 in a below-grade garage. Application with docs here, (very sparse) city page here. About a mile from the Newton Center Green Line stop and a mile from the Wegmans and other retail at Chestnut Hill, with the 52 bus a few hundred feet away, though of course the general hostility of Rt 9 makes all of that a challenge. I am not an architect in any sense of the word, but it seems like there is a lot going on in these renders.

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Good catch. Can't complain about the units and the looks is forgettable but inoffensive. That said, neighbors will raise as much hell as they can for a 40B because it's laughably out-of-scale with the single-family homes in the area.
 
If this project was a mile in either direction, it would be a total win. Route 9 needs this type of development to be de-highwayed, but it should happen in Chestnut Hill or Newton Highlands fist. This spot, unfortunately, is just such a transit desert.
 
This size project should be replacing all the odd buildings on the South side between Hammond Pond Pkwy and Hammond Street. The fire dept will be happy this site has changed use; no more mulch fires. I think one happened there last year?
 
dhawkins said:
This size project should be replacing all the odd buildings on the South side between Hammond Pond Pkwy and Hammond Street. The fire dept will be happy this site has changed use; no more mulch fires. I think one happened there last year?
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Absolutely. There's room for thousands upon thousands of TOD units there, and no real residential abutters to raise a stink about it.
 
BronsonShore said:
Absolutely. There's room for thousands upon thousands of TOD units there, and no real residential abutters to raise a stink about it.
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Much of that is in Brookline. Good luck.

I'd love to see a big mixed-use proposal for the low-mid-rise office complex west of Tully for starters. East of Tully things get a little denser (and there's already some apartments back off of Route 9).
 
dhawkins said:
This size project should be replacing all the odd buildings on the South side between Hammond Pond Pkwy and Hammond Street. The fire dept will be happy this site has changed use; no more mulch fires. I think one happened there last year?
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Theres tons of potential places to build residential wherever you see those 1 story retail buildings that are scattered all over the city at high trafficked areas and like you see in the area described above. It would be cool if the city/state could provide some kind of incentive to push the owners of these places to rebuild their ground floor retail but with 5 stories of residential above it.

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You see these all over the place. Places like blue hill ave, beacon st, brighton ave, and rt 9 have a million of these things.
 
stick n move said:
Theres tons of potential places to build residential wherever you see those 1 story retail buildings that are scattered all over the city at high trafficked areas and like you see in the area described above. It would be cool if the city/state could provide some kind of incentive to push the owners of these places to rebuild their ground floor retail but with 5 stories of residential above it.

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You see these all over the place. Places like blue hill ave, beacon st, brighton ave, and rt 9 have a million of these things.
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I'd be careful what we wish for with that - the streetwall and small retail spaces with these are much better than you could expect from a 1+5 apartment block.

Newton's Village Center Zoning has considered this and identified key streets where ground level retail is required, but it doesn't apply on this stretch of Route 9.

 
Equilibria said:
I'd be careful what we wish for with that - the streetwall and small retail spaces with these are much better than you could expect from a 1+5 apartment block.

Newton's Village Center Zoning has considered this and identified key streets where ground level retail is required, but it doesn't apply on this stretch of Route 9.

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I looked thru the link. Good job for the Newton team that put this together, it seems well thought out. Not surprisingly they find that override of parking zoning code requirements allows for more housing! Also, I learned that area I was recommending for residential development is actually Brookline. It appears half this area is zoned for residential so its possible there may be future development, just have to wait for the right developer that will put in the effort to navigate the Brookline By-laws.
 
The Newton planning department generally seems to do a good job and knows how to head in the right/modern direction, within and even stretching the constraints of what can practically get done in Newton. The issues are with the standard politics and delays around it, such that I moved to the city in 2013, zoning redesign was already a topic under discussion at that point, and basically nothing has been actually updated with the zoning policy in that decade. Which mostly just gets back to something like the MBTA Communities law and the need for the occasional stick.
 
The old cinema portion of "The Street" development seems to have slowed down. Strange that one side is getting enclosed with studs and Densglass sheathing while the other side is still in what appears to be the demo process? The project schedule was noted as fall 2023. I wonder if a temporary façade is being built on the active side to clean it up while the rest of the project gets put on hold?
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dhawkins said:
The old cinema portion of "The Street" development seems to have slowed down. Strange that one side is getting enclosed with studs and Densglass sheathing while the other side is still in what appears to be the demo process? The project schedule was noted as fall 2023. I wonder if a temporary façade is being built on the active side to clean it up while the rest of the project gets put on hold?
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It's a little hard to see in these pictures, but from the Route 9 side it's very cool to see the angled steel for the stadium seating. I had never internalized that at that theater you just went upstairs to a single hallway with the seats coming toward you like a drain...
 
I receive a lot of commercial real estate marketing materials and as recently as a week ago they were still heavily marketing office space at the old cinema. I would be surprised if they stop at the this point. WS has a lot invested at The Street.
 
Seems like the changes will make it blend in to the area a lot better. Its nice to see that this project is still moving forward, I dont remember hearing anything about it for a while. Its definitely not the most ideal place for low income housing being right up against rt 9 with no other options for getting around besides driving, but its better than a couple single families that probably would have been built here otherwise.

Its definitely annoying to see the low income housing here and the recent example constructed about a mile away from here down rt 9 in wellesley being built in the most undesirable, car centric, food/transit deserts you can imagine… buuut at least low income housing is finally being built in these wealthy cities/areas, thats a lot more than you could say a few years ago. Its not great, but its progress. The location is definitely not ideal, but in the current housing situation whats most important is just getting units up today to be lived in, and then going forward hopefully the next projects can be built in much better locations that arent “out of sight out of mind” like these are.
 
528 boylston is not a food desert. It's a bit of a hike but it's under a mile from The Mall @ Chestnut Hill and Wegmans and all the restaurants.
 
Haywood House

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“This new construction of 55 units of affordable housing was be designated for low and moderate-income seniors and persons with disabilities, located in an existing Newton Housing Authority development. The scope included related parking, demolition of existing community center building and landscape improvements.”


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https://www.colantonioinc.com/projects/haywood-house/


20 Kinmonth rd
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“Developer Armando Petruzziello is proposing a 24-unit condominium development at the site of the former Waban Health Center. View the plans here. A special permit application was filed on August 26, 2019. Materials regarding the application are posted in the documents archive on this page. The new building would occupy generally the same footprint as the current building, except for some slight expansions (most notably along the north side facing Brae Burn). It would add a third floor and be 10 feet higher than the existing building for a total height of 34.5 feet. The units would be comprised of thirteen 1-bedroom units, nine 2-bedroom units, and two 3-bedroom units. As per Newton's current Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance, four of the units will be affordable (including one 3-bedroom unit).

The development would have 24 parking spots, all underground. The parking spots will be "unbundled" from the units, except that each of the affordable units will be assigned one parking spot. The underground parking garage would be accessed at the front NW corner of the building. The project would result in more greenspace than exists currently, due to elimination of the long driveway and outdoor parking area. The project will incorporate electric heat pumps and have solar panels on the roof, and the developer will seek to earn a LEED Silver rating.”

http://www.wabanareacouncil.com/issue/20-kinmonth-rd

https://figcitynews.com/2023/07/new...p-opportunity-in-newton-info-meeting-july-24/
 
I have to say this is great reporting on the Council's review of the Village Center Zoning. There were a couple of folks voted off the Council a couple of weeks ago but they continue to fight to maintain what they have gained beyond MBTA mandatory requirements. Its shows a passion to get Newton growing in the village centers. Although the new folks that got on the Council are not against the MBTA requirements, they want to roll back some of the new village overlay areas and they only have won a couple of compromises so far. The next meeting is tonight. There are couple of meeting dates beyond noted at the end of the article.

Fig City News
 
dhawkins said:
I have to say this is great reporting on the Council's review of the Village Center Zoning. There were a couple of folks voted off the Council a couple of weeks ago but they continue to fight to maintain what they have gained beyond MBTA mandatory requirements. Its shows a passion to get Newton growing in the village centers. Although the new folks that got on the Council are not against the MBTA requirements, they want to roll back some of the new village overlay areas and they only have won a couple of compromises so far. The next meeting is tonight. There are couple of meeting dates beyond noted at the end of the article.

Fig City News
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The City Council passed a plan last night (21-2-1). The compromise was for 8,745 units, 415 above the statutory minimum.

If all of those units were to be built (which is unlikely), it would likely take Newton's population above 100,000. It was nearly 89,000 at the 2020 Census.

figcitynews.com

City Council approves a compromise zoning plan - Fig City News

After months of heated debate, the City Council voted on December 4 to approve a zoning package designed to comply with the MBTA Communities Law before the December 31, 2023 deadline. That law, as applied to Newton, requires zoning that allows “by right” development of multi-family housing...
figcitynews.com figcitynews.com

And yes, Fig City News is wonderful.
 
Equilibria said:
The City Council passed a plan last night (21-2-1). The compromise was for 8,745 units, 415 above the statutory minimum.

If all of those units were to be built (which is unlikely), it would likely take Newton's population above 100,000. It was nearly 89,000 at the 2020 Census.

figcitynews.com

City Council approves a compromise zoning plan - Fig City News

After months of heated debate, the City Council voted on December 4 to approve a zoning package designed to comply with the MBTA Communities Law before the December 31, 2023 deadline. That law, as applied to Newton, requires zoning that allows “by right” development of multi-family housing...
figcitynews.com figcitynews.com

And yes, Fig City News is wonderful.
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There are also over 1,000 units in the pipeline already between Riverside and Northland, right? Not to mention a couple other big projects on Washington Street. If an average of 1.5 people are expected to live in these units (note: I have absolutely no idea whether that number is accurate), then it shouldn't be hard to see Newton surpassing 100,000 soon.

It's disappointing that the larger zoning overhaul won't be implemented yet, but we could still see some real positive transformation of Newton Centre and the Highlands in the immediate future.
 
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