The Newtonville Area Council (NAC) unveiled modeling of the proposed Village Center Zoning at its meeting in January. According to the NAC, “After ZAP and the Planning & Development Department repeatedly asserted that 3D modeling was neither necessary nor even possible within their time and budget constraints, the Newtonville Area Council voted to allocate some of the money earned from our Village Day events to have modeling prepared for our Village Center. After research and interviews, the working group engaged an experienced professional urban planner and modeler, to do this important work for our Village Center In which more than 100 parcels were proposed for the two most intensive categories of zoning.”
The NAC presented 3D massing models, shadow studies, and a simulated photorealistic visualization produced by Selkirk Planning & Design, based on the Zoning and Planning’s draft zoning map and draft ordinance. The presentation focused on areas along both Washington Street and Walnut Street proposed for the VC3 zoning designation to illustrate what would be allowed by right. At the start of the presentation, they qualified the accuracy of the VC1 areas in the images, stating that they were not fully accurate about the proposed up-zoning and understated the density/lot coverage that would be permitted. They explained that this was due to software limitations, adding that the software also combined lots in VC1 in ways that may or may not happen, but have occurred in other recent development projects in Newton.
A recording of the presentation can be found here.
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