Riverside Development | 333 Grove Street | Newton

jklo said:
Have you ever been there? It's in an isolated area. The restaurant they build (and the pretty mediocre cafe at Riverside Center) are the only food sources within walking distance.

Might not need it to get to work, but you need a car.
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It's not about "needing a car". Unbundled parking lowers rents. Parking costs a fortune to construct. No sense offering it up for free. If you want a spot, you can pay for it. Most new apartment buildings do this. It is becoming common practice and in many cities is required, including in Cambridge, for example.
 
sm89 said:
It's not about "needing a car". Unbundled parking lowers rents. Parking costs a fortune to construct. No sense offering it up for free. If you want a spot, you can pay for it. Most new apartment buildings do this. It is becoming common practice and in many cities is required, including in Cambridge, for example.
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You're right about it being expensive, but these apartments are going to be super expensive too.

You could say that an extra $200/month x2 wouldn't be a big deal to someone renting given how expensive it'll be. Maybe the issue isn't that they are charging for parking, but (perhaps to placate the Lower Falls?) they are making assumptions about the parking ratio which is clearly wrong.

And if they are going to be that stingy on parking, have to think the office space is going to be a tough sell.
 
cden4 said:
Charging for parking is also a good way to manage parking. Some households need zero spaces. Some need 2 or more. Let people pay for what they need.
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It also allows them to charge different models to balance load - i.e. the standard "out by 8am, in after 4pm" discount for those driving to work, freeing that space for park-and-riders at Riverside.
 
Does this plan impede efforts to create a link to the Worcester line for indego line service to South Station? It's the perfect terminus of a line that runs SS-BB-Yawkey-BU-Allston-Brighton-those other two stops no one uses - Riverside
 
jass said:
Does this plan impede efforts to create a link to the Worcester line for indego line service to South Station? It's the perfect terminus of a line that runs SS-BB-Yawkey-BU-Allston-Brighton-those other two stops no one uses - Riverside
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No. The platforms would be on the far side of the station from the development.

Also, FWIW, Newtonville is a higher-ridership station than Boston Landing in 2018 ridership data.
 
Also noticed that they are doing all electric for utilities. That also sounds expensive, even with a heat pump.
 
Equilibria said:
There's a ton of influence from the DC area on this, IMO. There's lots of new/old row houses in urbanist pods around there:

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
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For anyone who was curious like me, this is the developer page of the project that @Equilibria linked to. Some with exceedingly high bars might still consider this to be Disneyland-esque caricature, but to me, it feels exceptionally well-executed and very convincing. We'll be very lucky if we get something of this quality here.

As for "Elkus-tastic", isn't this a David M. Schwarz project? They're one of the few firms that can actually execute on traditional/vernacular projects in my opinion.
 
With the plot to the north west of the course... yeah shadows are going to be a huge problem....
Again, f*** these NIMBY elites.
 
#bancars said:
The latest: Woodland Golf Course raising noise/dust/shadow/sunlight concerns about the project :mad:

www.bostonglobe.com

Riverside redevelopment runs into new hurdle: the Woodland golf course across the street - The Boston Globe

This Riverside project is one of the largest Newton has ever seen.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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To add a few things:

- This has been building between Woodland and Korff since June, as the article states.
- Korff raised these issues in a 9/3 letter to the Land Use Committee (which was pretty pissed off at the notion of paying Woodland anything, as he should be).
- I watched the next Land Use Committee meeting (9/10) to take the temperature. Proceeded as if nothing happened.
- The article implies that the Land Use Committee would approve the project next Tuesday. It is expected to.
- In Lower Falls and Auburndale, Councillors are proceeding as if City Council approval is next to certain. Remaining neighborhood issues are actually relatively limited.

In summary: Korff leaked this to John Chesto last weekend. He wants people to be outraged at Woodland to put pressure on them to give up (he doesn't want to pay them off). I'm about 95% sure Woodland is no threat to the project.

And yes, Woodland is flat out extorting Korff here. They have no meaningful presence on Grove Street, and they're awful from a resident's perspective (witness their ugly wooden palisade along both Grove and Washington Streets and that residents are not allowed to walk on their vast, centrally-located property).
 
The EGE said:
Woodland uses an architectural gem - the original HH Richardson-designed Woodland station - as a poorly maintained storage shed. They can go choke on their own fertilizer.
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At least they haven't torn it down. I was very close to making a public comment suggesting that Korff buy it and move it into the "transit green" outside of his Riverside entrance. It could serve nicely as a bus shelter.
 
Equilibria said:
At least they haven't torn it down. I was very close to making a public comment suggesting that Korff buy it and move it into the "transit green" outside of his Riverside entrance. It could serve nicely as a bus shelter.
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That sounds like a nice compromise to Woodland's extortion plot lol.
 
theSil said:
For anyone who was curious like me, this is the developer page of the project that @Equilibria linked to. Some with exceedingly high bars might still consider this to be Disneyland-esque caricature, but to me, it feels exceptionally well-executed and very convincing. We'll be very lucky if we get something of this quality here.

As for "Elkus-tastic", isn't this a David M. Schwarz project? They're one of the few firms that can actually execute on traditional/vernacular projects in my opinion.
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Wow. That looks awesome!
 
The Lower Falls Improvement Association Riverside Committee, which represented residents who raised concerns about the development, praised neighbors and city officials for their involvement in the project and credited Mark Development for meeting with the group and negotiating in good faith. The group’s statement said it will continue to advocate for the community during construction.

“While we succeeded in reducing the overall size of the project and working out many details, the 10 building, 1.025 million square foot development approved tonight essentially creates a new Newton village," the statement said. "Nonetheless, this is what compromise looks like.”

Here, fixed that for you: "While we probably succeeded in avoiding the most obnoxiously elitist, exclusionary, and pointlessly obstructionist NIMBY tactics, the fact is we contributed, through our stalling tactics, to raising the price of this new housing, in a region catastrophically starved for new housing--with all of the second-order effects in terms of homelessness, thwarted opportunities, painful sacrifices, and the like that entails. Of course the development approved tonight comes nowhere near close to creating a new 'village'--only an act of government can do that. Moreover, the City's population is still well below its 1960 peak of 92k--and even though it has been rising steadily over the past few decades, never has the new growth critically strained any of our municipal services and infrastructure. This is what compromise looks like in a region battered by the worst effects of NIMBYism."
 
Developers behind an approved mixed-use project at the MBTA Riverside station in Newton are proposing sweeping changes that would boost the amount of commercial space, replace a planned hotel with a life sciences building, and reduce the amount of space devoted to residential apartments and retail use.
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www.bostonglobe.com

Riverside developers seek to replace hotel with life sciences building - The Boston Globe

Developers behind an approved mixed-use project at Newton’s MBTA Riverside station are proposing sweeping changes, including a reduction in the number of residential units and replacing a hotel with a life sciences building.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
LYQOK2GBVJHN5AVLEHBNWRGG3A.jpg
 
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