Among organizations engaged in this year’s Village Center Zoning reform efforts is the Newton for Everyone Coalition, which was formed earlier this year to educate and support the City’s Village Center Zoning efforts. It currently includes these Newton organizations: Newton Interfaith Clergy for Housing Equity (NICHE), Uniting Citizens for Housing Affordability in Newton, (U-CHAN), Green Newton Building Standards Committee, Engine 6 Newton Housing Advocates, League of Women Voters Newton, Charles River Regional Chamber, Newton Upstanders, and Abundant Housing Massachusetts.
Separate from the Newton For Everyone Coalition, Janine Stewart recently registered with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) a new Political Action Committee (PAC) with the same name: Newton for Everyone-PAC.
Fig City News reached out to the PAC to ask why it was set up. PAC President Janine Stewart said that the City Council was not listening to the community. She added that a group of residents and businesses owners were willing to “take a stand against a super political machine.”
Kathy Pillsbury, a leader of the original Newton for Everyone Coalition, described her group as a “loose coalition of groups whose mission is to provide education on the proposed zoning.” She added that they are not supporting candidates directly in any way.” (Engine 6 is the only member group that has endorsed a slate of candidates).
Pillsbury said their signs, which she designed, were paid for by a few individuals and that she also designed and is paying for the hosting of the Coalition’s website. No funds are being donated to the Coalition, and no one has been asked to fund its efforts in any way.
Regarding the new PAC, Pillsbury said: “Just the fact that they took the name, which is on all of our lawn signs, was designed to confuse people…why else would they pick the name for the PAC?” (See Letter to the Editor to Fig City News).
Business owner and PAC member, Benny Arpino, explained that many residents have felt that there has been a concerted effort to “silence” their voices on village center zoning. He added that many small businesses started a Village Business alliance to give the local businesses a voice, since many were not included in the process and are against the rezoning proposals and have signed a petition that the new zoning not be placed in their village center because it does not represent their best interests. Arpino said it is unknown who is financing the signs for the Coalition. Unlike the Coalition, the PAC is registered with the State OCPF and, according to its statement of organization, will be supporting candidates.
Arpino said that Newton’s zoning should provide affordable housing opportunities in every neighborhood, and that there should be a plan in place to support and preserve current small businesses before — not after — implementation of the new zoning. He asked, “If Newton is truly for everyone – why aren’t the village businesses being listened to, too?”