A Newton Developer Wants To Extend Drainage Into Her Lots. The Plan Has Neighbors Up in Arms.

When Betsy Harper bought the lots at 132 Homer St., her vision was idyllic. Having developed an inventive energy-efficient house in Cambridge, Harper thought she had found the site of her next Earth-friendly home nestled behind the aqueduct in Newton Centre.

But Harper’s new, leafy parcel adjacent to the Newton Centre Playground came with a condition—because the land was swampy and vulnerable to flooding, the city’s Planning Board of Survey had decided in 2023 that the land’s developer would need to install a new drainage system to make it buildable.

“The Board of Survey did know that there was a high water table throughout the neighborhood, including this subdivision,” Harper said. ”They talked about the fact that they needed to make sure that there was a strong drainage solution.” 

Harper said she quickly abandoned the idea of building a new home for herself on the Homer Street land due to concerns voiced by neighbors and her husband. Instead, she decided to put the land on the market. 

“I didn’t clarify enough of the project to my husband, who was questioning a little bit whether that was the best location for us, and then some of this neighborhood opposition started bubbling up,” Harper said. 

In order to sell the property, Harper pushed on with the process of installing the drain extension—a line that would hook up to the city’s main drain and to which current Chapin Road residents would be able to hook up their own pumps. 

But residents say the adjacent Chapin Road has been plagued with flooding problems for decades, with some believing that new developments could worsen the issue. One resident, Ingrid Schroffner, said past water damage has forced her to redo her basement three times, with repairs totaling up to tens of thousands of dollars.

“In 25 years, we’ve had three floods that have flooded our basements, and we’re not the only ones,” Schroffner said.

Determined to fight against Harper’s project, Chapin Road residents have convened in dining rooms, given public comment at hearings, and collectively hired a lawyer and two engineers to represent their interests. Their lawyer and engineers disagree with the city on a range of issues, including which regulations apply to the site and the process by which each engineering evaluation took place.

“We’re also trying to get them to enforce regulations and rules that exist,” Schroffner said. “This shouldn’t be our job. This should be Newton City Hall’s job. It should be the councilor’s job, and they are concerned, to their credit.”

Irregularities in the land called for additional improvements to be made alongside the drain itself. As of a July 28 presentation to the Newton Public Facilities Committee, Harper’s plan involves raising the grade of the land to up to 5 feet in some places, installing an additional rain harvesting system, as well as a phosphorus removal system. 

Harper said that this seemed like a good solution to the neighborhood’s flooding problems because it would account for water overflow. She even offered to install granite curbing near the neighborhood’s existing drains to sweeten the deal for neighbors.

But residents’ concerns about flooding persisted.

Raphael Bruckner, who lives on Chapin Road, said he doesn’t want to see the city risk worsening the flooding issues with new developments that could add more water to Chapin Road’s already-faulty drains.

“​The values that I was brought up with are, you know, you do the kind of things that make sense and don’t make the problem worse,” Bruckner said. “This idea of building more housing on flood-prone lots in 2025, in an era of increasing climate volatility, is what we don’t want to be doing.”

Further, Harper’s engineer has projected that hooking up to the new drain extension will cost residents around $15,000 out of pocket, though the exact amount is still under review. Harper has also offered $5,000 each to residents who are willing to attach to the new system.

While attachment is optional, Schroffner still sees it as an unfair ask of residents.

“Completely out of pocket for a private developer, for ephemeral people who don’t even live here, for ephemeral houses that aren’t here, which may not need to be here,” Schroffner said.

Most recently, some neighbors submitted a 59-page memo to the city council, including a 41-signature petition opposing the drain extension, individual letters from residents, a private engineer’s evaluation, and a legal review of the proposal. 

“Me and maybe a couple other people from our end of the street started to inform the other neighbors,” Bruckner said. “That’s when it kind of took off, that people got really motivated to see what could be done.”

In a narrow 3–2 vote with one abstention, Newton’s Public Facilities Committee approved the drain extension on July 28. The next step is a second call by the full City Council, which will allow the council to vote on the drain extension again. If the drain were approved, there would be a further approval process for drain permitting and construction.

In the meantime, Harper said she’s seeking a second engineer to conduct an independent peer review of her project. She’s also looking for a lawyer to represent her.

“I want to do everything to help remove the confusion,” Harper said.

Harper has spent much of her career in environmental management and consulting, serving as the manager of sustainability programs for the state’s Department of Community and Housing Development. She said that she set out for passion, not profit.

“I’ve really been characterized as this sort of evil developer who’s trying to buy this and turn it and make profit,” Harper said. “That’s nowhere near the truth at this point. And I fully admit I am financially naive and not a developer.”

In the project’s most recent discussion at a Public Facilities Committee meeting on July 28, Ward 4 Councilor-at-Large Leonard Gentile voted in favor of installing the pipe because in the he-said-she-said exchange between engineers, he trusted the authority of the city to determine what is best.

“We’re going to have to believe somebody,” Gentile said. “I’m gonna believe our city engineer because he has a longstanding record of being diligent in what approvals he issues and the conditions of those approvals.”

Ward 7 Councilor-at-Large Marc Laredo abstained from the vote in that meeting, noting concerns about the engineering gymnastics included to abate the flooding issue.

“There are a lot of unknowns here, and I’m struck by the fact that we are putting in a lot of fill and a lot of other things to kind of make this work,” Laredo said. “The neighbors are raising, at least in my mind, legitimate concerns about what happens if this doesn’t go right.”

As the neighborhood looks forward to the full city council’s approach to the issue, Bruckner said he’s been heartened by the city’s ability to attempt compromise.

“I’ve been encouraged by the way the community has come together for this,” Bruckner said. “I’ve been quite encouraged by the willingness of city councilors to listen to the community, which was, ultimately, what was missing at the early part of this process.”

Correction (8/11/2025, 3 p.m.): This article was corrected to accurately reflect Harper’s former job title and the cost of residents attaching to the pipe.