The Newton City Council voted to appeal to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) Wednesday after a building on Clinton Street was built nearly 10 feet taller than anticipated.
“The City Council’s unanimous approval of this project was based on missing and inaccurate project information, and now the neighborhood is living with a project that no one expected,” Ward 1 Councilor Maria Scibelli Greenberg said.
The council’s Land Use Committee reviewed the construction project on 20 Clinton Street in Nonantum in 2023.
According to Greenberg, the developers showed the committee drawings indicating the building would stand at the same grade as the surrounding properties, meaning the ground under the building would not be raised or lowered.
In effect, the committee members thought the new building would be the same height as the others in the neighborhood, Greenberg said.
“Two of those drawings were shown by planning at the June 6 Land Use meeting with a statement, quote, ‘This is how the project will present from Clinton Street.’” Greenberg said. “Clearly, the project is shown at the same grade as the abutting properties.”
But now, the building stands nine feet and six inches taller than what they planned for.
Newton’s planning department did not clarify important jargon in the rendering that would have tipped off the councilors to the fact that the building would stand taller than it appeared in the plans, Ward 8 Councilor-at-Large David Kalis said.
“The planning department, as I understood it, did not articulate that this was the intention to raise the grade,” Kalis said.
Ward 5 Councilor-at-Large Andreae Downs expressed frustration that the details were not clarified to the Land Use Committee.
“I don’t want to have to be asking at each meeting that I go to after this, ‘Will this be changing the grade? Are these representations that you’re giving us accurate?’” Downs said. “I want to be able to trust the information that’s put before us.”
Ward 1 councilors, who represent the neighborhood where the project was built, called for an investigation on what went wrong through the ZBA, which is an external body that interprets and enforces the city’s zoning laws.
Some councilors even floated hiring lawyers to conduct a private investigation, but the idea was nixed because of the cost.
“We kind of want to get a more independent voice outside the city to look at it more objectively,” Ward 1 Councilor-at-Large Alison Leary said. “Because we have been working with the planning department, we have been working with inspectional services … and we don’t feel like we’re getting anywhere.”
The council did not determine how they intend to remedy the situation, saying instead they will approach that question after the ZBA processes the appeal. Councilors suggested fining the developer, mandating the deconstruction of the building, or withholding the occupancy permit.
The motion to appeal passed 18–1 on second call, a process that allows the full council to vote on issues previously determined in a subcommittee.
The council also voted 17–2 on second call to finance the investigation using $1,000 from its “Sunshine Fund,” a pool made up of the council members’ own money, normally designated for giving gifts to each other.
Divided among the 24 councilors, each will have to pay $42 to replenish the fund.
“I personally believe that if we have personal funds as a group, there is no better way to spend it than on the integrity of this group,” Ward 1 Councilor-at-Large John Oliver said. “We rely on that every single day we sit in this room. That is the most important thing we carry.”
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