Good morning!

Thanks to the 500+ old and new friends (including a strong contingent of Brookline first-timers, a mere 13 days into our transition) who joined us last night for Spring Seasonings at the Newton Marriott.

A special toast to the 40+ restaurants and their teams who served up an unforgettable spread of standout dishes. These businesses donate their time — and amazing food — on what is often their only night off to support our chamber’s work.

And thanks to The Village Bank, NBC10 and our other sponsors for helping bring it all to the table. It was a feast in every sense.

With Spring Seasonings now in the rearview, our next marquee event is the Spring Business Breakfast on May 15. We’re announcing our featured speaker shortly.

Brookline businesses were well represented at Spring Seasonings. Leise Jones Photography

Here’s another factor adding pressure to our housing supply

This past fall, Boston College enrolled its largest freshman class in four years: 2,479 students, the most since 2021.

That’s now creating a housing crunch for some of those students as they look ahead to their sophomore year, reports Alexa Allers in The BC Heights.

Demand for dorm space has spiked, with doubles and triples on the Chestnut Hill campus filling up within minutes of the housing selection lottery opening.

As a result, many rising sophomores told Allers they’re looking to move off campus for the 2026–27 school year due to a shortage of traditional dorm space.

“I didn’t expect this many people would be in the same boat as me,” one student said.

Newton advances large building emissions rules

It’s been about 15 months since Newton passed an ordinance requiring large buildings (over 20,000 SF) to report carbon emissions — and eventually reduce them for commercial properties. Residential buildings must report but aren’t yet required to cut emissions.

Now, the first draft of the city’s BERDO regulations is out, reports the Newton Beacon, with a few notable changes.

Instead of annual energy reports, the BERDO advisory commission is proposing a five-year reporting cycle — a meaningful reduction in the burden on building owners.

The commission is also seeking flexibility on hardship exemptions, keeping criteria intentionally vague for now so the city can gather real-world data as the policy rolls out.

Commercial properties that don’t comply or qualify for a hardship would face a fee of $234 per metric ton of CO2, reviewed every five years. Public comment on the draft is open now on the city’s website.

16 homes proposed in Newton Upper Falls

Needham-based Thurston Development LLC will go before the Newton City Council’s Land Use Committee tonight to present plans for 16 attached single-family homes across eight buildings near the Emerson Community Center at 93 Thruston Rd. in Upper Falls

Three of the 16 units will be affordable, and each unit comes with two parking spaces, for a total of 32.

Tuesday grab bag

• Nearly half of ICE arrests in Massachusetts involve immigrants with no criminal record. (MassLive)
• Polls are open for Needham’s town election until 8 p.m. tonight. Needham Observer has every detail.
  
  
• I enjoyed learning about the story behind this carved-from-a-tree Heartbreak Hill Marathon Statue.
• Congresswoman Katherine Clark has secured $500,000 to help design the streetscape for the Watertown Square redesign.
  
  
• Clark also secured $500,000 to increase urban tree canopy, improve stormwater management using green infrastructure, and protect and restore the ecological health along the Charles River in Wellesley.
  
  
• We’ll ask the three candidates for two seats on the Brookline Select Board how they plan to help businesses in a virtual forum, April 23 at 2 p.m. Register.
• The Chestnut Hill Wegmans has closed its pharmacy, but the store has begun offering free prescription delivery services to customers. (Brookline.News)
  
  
• Wellesley’s Select Board is meeting in executive session again tonight to discuss potential litigation related to the state’s planned housing development at the MassBay parking lot.
  
  
• The Brookline Select Board will hold a public hearing tonight at 7 p.m. on the proposed rezoning of the Chestnut Hill commercial area, tied to a three-building mixed-use development by City Realty. The Planning Board will take up the same proposal at its own hearing on Thurs. April 16 (7 p.m.). 
  
  
• Second Step, Inc. will hold Celebrating Success, an evening benefiting survivors of domestic violence, on May 7 (7 p.m.) at Brae Burn Country Club in Newton.
  
  
• Spain is opening a trade office in Massachusetts and creating a $200 million VC fund to help Spanish entrepreneurs and scientists commercialize their life science research. (Boston Globe)
  
  
• You’re invited: Tutor, a very cool Watertown-based robotics company, is celebrating the opening of its new headquarters: a 35,000 SF facility at Riverworks, 480 Pleasant St., on April 23, 6 to 9 p.m. RSVP
  
  
• Needham’s new Economic Development Director, John Sisson, tells the Needham Channel how he plans to approach his new job.
  
  
• Once again, the BBJ’s 2026 Best Places to Work honorees include many chamber members: Bright Horizons, William James College, Callahan, Commodore Builders, LGA CPA, Baystate Financial, SFP Wealth, Ligris & Associates PC and Northwestern Mutual Wellesley.
  
  
• On this day in 1642, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first law in the New World requiring that children be taught to read and write. (Mass Moments)

Great Plain Ave. debate is dead, just nobody told this guy

As if the Great Plain Ave. redesign hasn’t caused enough anxiety, a resident is now pushing to bring what looks like a settled issue to Needham Town Meeting.

Wells Blanchard will present a citizens’ petition to the Select Board tonight to block any further spending on studying a two-lane option.

It’s hard not to see this as beyond excessive, given survey results, public testimony and Select Board debates already point to keeping four lanes.

Here’s hoping the Select Board votes soon on a final plan — and learns something from what’s been a poorly executed process from the start.

A familiar face heads to a new opportunity

For the past four years, Maxime Isaac has been at the heart of our chamber’s work.

Our Member Services Coordinator, Maxime, has been the friendly face behind the registration desk, the helpful voice on the phone, the guy who was always ready to provide assistance, make an introduction or provide a member-to-member referral.

He was even the tour guide who once took us on that memorable Trip up the Charles in 2022.

Maxime has been our front-line organizer and empathizer for our Dining and Retail Collaboratives during an extraordinarily challenging era for those small businesses. He’s led our scholarship program, small networking groups, Young Professionals Group and launched our LGBTQIA networking group, among other initiatives — always rising to the occasion. Always with a smile and professionalism.

Tomorrow is Maxime’s last day with the chamber.

He’s joining The Village Bank as Community Relations Coordinator — a great match for his organizational skills and gregarious personality, especially as the bank expands into Wellesley and Needham, communities he knows well.

We’re grateful to Maxime for his dedication and service to our businesses and nonprofits and look forward to collaborating with him in his new role.

P.S. Yes, we’re hiring!  Please share with your networks or learn more and apply.

That’s what you need to know for today — Holocaust Remembrance Day — unless you need to know whether it was harder for Millennials or Boomers when they were between the ages of 25-44?

Enjoy this weather by dining outdoors at a restaurant near you.

Greg Reibman (he, him)

President & CEO

Charles River Regional Chamber

617.244.1688

Looking for an earlier edition? Archive here

Max Woolf contributed to today’s newsletter.