A second public meeting regarding the Riverside Visioning Process was held on Thursday evening, hosted by representatives of the City of Newton Department of Planning, the urban consulting firm CivicMoxie, and the real estate development and consulting firm Urban Focus. The event followed up on a previous public meeting in February, one in which citizens of Newton posed questions and provided feedback about the project.
The function on Thursday served as an opportunity for the aforementioned groups to present the findings of the previous meeting. The team synthesized comments and suggestions from the Q&A session last month into a draft of a vision plan for the site, the final version of which will be passed on to the Land Use Committee of the Newton City Council. While some citizens appeared to be pleased with the team’s efforts to collect the feedback, others voiced their opposition to the project and the language used by the presenters during an occasionally tense civic meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, Sandi Stroud of Urban Focus described how the Riverside property was extremely attractive to potential developers and property owners, due to the rail station’s proximity to state Route 128, especially considering that commercial and lab space is increasingly scarce in Boston proper. Stroud emphasized that the current plan recommended that the Riverside zone be developed as a multi-use area with distinct zones for office space, housing, retail, and the Riverside T station itself.
The preliminary draft of the vision plan was grouped into six categories: community connections, housing, sustainability, design, the local economy, and transportation. Susan Silberberg, the principal of CivicMoxie, led the majority of the information session by presenting an outline of conclusions which the firm drew from the initial community meeting.
Silberberg said that the current draft of the plan suggested that the re-developed zone serve as a space where residents would be able to shop, eat, and gather for community events. One proposition which recurred throughout the evening was a call to connect the development with the nearby stretch of the Charles River, easily allowing people in the area to access already established trails and nature preservations.
With regard to residential areas, Silberberg said that the current iteration of the vision plan proposes the construction of different housing options that would suit Newton’s current needs, as well as be adaptable to future requirements. Importantly, this would take into consideration the Newton’s aging demographic by providing living spaces for elderly individuals who might eventually seek to downsize. According to a demographic report from 2014, more than 15 percent of the Newton population was at least 65 years old. Additionally, the vision plan draft calls for permanently affordable housing, especially that which would be accessible for middle-class families.
The current plan also recommended that any new structures on the site be constructed of environmentally sustainable materials and that any structures built for the project be carbon neutral. The development should be visually attractive, Silberberg said, particularly because the site’s location near Route 198 serves as a gateway for the rest of Newton.
The current version of the vision plan recommended the addition of office and retail space that would add tax revenue to the city and would benefit citizens, according to Silberberg. This would include the allowing of diverse sizes and types of offices, some of which would be small enough that small businesses and startup companies could afford to rent it out. Furthermore, it would be encouraged for businesses that are “complementary, not competing” to the rest of Newton to set up shop.
Some citizens, however—including some who also attended the first meeting—expressed concerns about the development.
During the public comment session following the outline of the preliminary plans, citizens repeated their apprehensions of over-development, which they said would adversely affect the small-town feel of the villages of Auburndale and Lower Falls. Some citizens specifically stated that they worried that Grove Street—which runs adjacent to the Riverside site—would become overly congested.
Additionally, some people in attendance were concerned that developments to the Riverside station and its surrounding area would result in overcrowded trains on the D Line because of an increase in passengers from the line’s terminus.
A broader concern voiced by residents was that the proposal for the vision plan was influenced more by the demands of potential developers and property owners, rather than by the desires of the Newton public.
A third and final meeting for public input on the vision plan is scheduled for April 30 at a location that has yet to be determined.
Featured Image by Doug Girardot / For the Heights
