Good morning friends,

184 human beings, and their families or roommates, will be able to move or stay or downsize in Newton now that the ZBA has approved the Toll Brothers' proposed six-story apartment complex at 528 Boylston Street.

Wednesday’s 5-0 vote came after two years of fierce opposition from a well organized group of abutters.

Since it was first presented, the 40B project shrunk from 244 to 184 units.  The final project will include 37 units at or below 80 AIM and nine at or below 50% AIM.

Could this Newton Highlands site be an MBTA Communities beneficiary?

Meanwhile, could a terrific spot for a small housing project be opening up in Newton Highlands, thanks to the MBTA Communities Act rezoning?

Brookline Bank says its lease at 1160 Walnut St. is not being renewed. That could open up the location for mixed-use housing, directly across from the MBTA station and the Highland’s outstanding mix of restaurants and small businesses.

Under Newton’s recently passed Village Center Zoning, the parcel could accommodate a 4.5 story building by right and perhaps 20 units. There’s also a ground-floor commercial requirement along Walnut Street, which is exactly what we want to preserve in our downtowns and villages. Parking is not required but a developer could choose to include it.

Once the branch closes in August, Brookline Bank will still have three other locations within three miles of the branch: Newton Centre, Newtonville and Chestnut Hill.

Housing efforts moving forward in Needham too

On Wednesday Needham Town meeting approved a zoning amendment, and separately $5.5 million in Community Preservation Act funds, to redevelop the Linden/Chamber affordable housing property owned by the Needham Housing Authority.

The $5.5 million will go toward redeveloping 72 of its existing units with 136 new ones only if NHA obtains nearly $80 million from the state, feds or other sources.

Should the project move forward, the other buildings would also be redeveloped, for a total of 247 units, reports Cameron Morsberger at Needham Local.

(Needham Observer has updates on other Town Meeting votes.)

MBTA Communities vote won’t happen until the fall

While Town Meeting resumes in Needham next week, the two most consequential decisions TM members will make in 2024 won’t happen until Special Town Meeting in October.

That’s when members will be asked to choose between two approaches to complying with the MBTA Communities Act.

1. Approve a “base” plan that’s designed to comply with the law but is unlikely to add many new homes.  This plan just barely exceeds the state’s minimum requirement of 1,784 potential units by providing zoning capacity for 1,868 units.
2. If the base plan is approved, members will then be asked to substitute it with a more expansive “neighborhood” plan which aims to gradually add much-needed housing along the town’s central spine. It has a zoning capacity to create 3,294 housing units.

It’s super important to stop here and, once again, note that zoning capacity does not mean that’s how many units would be built. MBTA Communities is a zoning law, not a housing production requirement. Economic factors (along with decisions by owners who like their properties just as they are) will ultimately determine how much gets built.

Modeling by RKG Associates and Innes Associates estimates Needham’s base compliance plan would only add 222 units of housing over the next decade.  The neighborhood plan is projected to add only 1,099 new homes over a decade, notes Peter O’Neal at the Needham Observer

There is, of course, a third path. That would if Town Meeting followed the lead of a small handful of other communities that are refusing to abide by the law, risking losing many thousands in state aid.

Don’t look for that to happen here. More than 55 cities and towns (the Globe is tracking every vote here) have adopted new zoning to comply with the law. There’s every reason to believe Needham will do the same.

The only question is, which plan will Town Meeting choose?

A plan that complies on paper but doesn’t move the needle much? Or a plan that would allow local workers, young families, kids who grew up in town, and downsizing seniors a chance to live, or remain, in this special community?

Friday grab bag

• The Newton School Committee voted this week to not let up to 70 kids from Boston, Watertown, Waltham or other communities enroll in the city’s elementary schools as a way to bring in revenue as enrollment declines. Sounds like something worth remembering the next time there’s a call for a school override.
• A special committee at Tripadvisor formed to consider acquisition offers has concluded that “there is no transaction with a third party that is in the best interests of the company and its stockholders."(BBJ)
• Watertown needs residents to serve on its Zoning Board of Appeals. Submit letter of interest, resume and other information concerning background or experience to Citymgr@watertown-ma.gov
•  Wellesley Police Chief Jack Pilecki, who retiring later this year after four decades with the department, will serve as Grand Marshal at the 56th Annual Wellesley Veterans Parade on May 19 during Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend. (SwellesleyReport)
• The 50th annual Newton Mayor’s Community Breakfast, May 22, 7 a.m. at the UMass Amherst Mount Ida Campus, will feature acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy as the keynote speaker, along with honorees retiring Reps. Ruth Balser and Kay Khan, plus Susan Paley and Karen Peirce.  
• If you're growing your business or looking for retail, or restaurant space, join us one week from today (May 17) at 11 a.m., for our VirtualSmall Business Leasing 101 Workshop, hosted by Graffito.
• Ninebark, the new restaurant from former Latina Kitchen Owner Antonio De Trizio, is preparing to open in West Newton. Limited takeout starts today (May 9).
• The Asian Community Fund (ACF) at the Boston Foundation is the first and only
• philanthropic fund in Massachusetts dedicated to activating, convening and supporting the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.  Learn more.
• Don’t forget to let us know if you’re attending our event on Tuesday (May 14) at 9:30 a.m. with Transportation Sect. Monica Tibbits-Nutt.

Tipped wage question now before the court

Whether or not voters will be asked if they want to change the state’s tipped wage law is now up to the Supreme Judicial Court.

The ballot question proposes two changes:

• Eliminate the current tipped wage (currently $6.75 per hour) and require restaurants and other businesses pay workers, such as wait staff, standard minimum wage (currently $15 per hour)
• Require that tips collected be shared with employees who by law are not eligible for tips, such as cooks and dishwashers.

The Mass. Restaurant Association and others argued this week that voters should not be asked to decide two issues on one ballot question.  Lawyers Weekly has more.

Don’t tell anyone at Newton City Hall

Newton charges a lot less than other large municipalities for a parking ticket, according to Axios Boston.

• Somerville charges $50 for a street cleaning violation. In Newton, it's $20.
• Double parking is a lot cheaper in Newton than in other cities at just $15.
• The fine for blocking a bike lane ranges from $15 in Newton to $100 in Boston.

It’s easy to be agreeable when you agree

It’s easy to defend the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech in support of something you agree with.

The challenge comes when you have to defend something intolerable, outrageous or offensive.

That seemed to be the case last week when Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller defended a photo exhibit at the Newton Free Library even though she said she believed the exhibit would be “quite hurtful and divisive.”

That exhibit, “The Ongoing & Relentless Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe of 1948 to Today,” features photographs of people and landscapes in the West Bank in 2018 and 2019.

I took a look myself yesterday. I tried, but failed, to find an image anyone could reasonably find troubling. (The Newton Beacon has photos and a story here.)

The controversy rather, as others have noted, seems to revolve entirely around the exhibit’s title itself.

I looked but couldn’t find the exhibit title listed anywhere near the gallery, or any correlation between the images in the small exhibition, and the title. (Perhaps I missed it? ) There were, however, several posted statements about library policies explaining the curatorial process and the library bill of rights.

“I applaud the efforts by the Newton Free Library to be a role model for how a community library can help residents learn about deeply painful and contentious topics. Rather than canceling or postponing this art show, the Library is helping us learn, engage, think critically and converse civilly,” Fuller wrote in her newsletter.

And that’s what one would hope an exhibit like this might do. 

That’s what you need to know for today, unless you need to know what food product came out the year you were born.

Happy Mother’s Day.  And here’s to a couple of better played games threes.

Greg Reibman (he, him)

President & CEO

Charles River Regional Chamber

617.244.1688

Keep up with news from our members here.