Alicia Bowman seeks reelection as one of two At-Large City Councilors from Ward 6 and spoke recently with Fig City News.
Before election to the City Council, Ms. Bowman was co-founder of Safe Routes to School, Founder of Tour de Newton, and past president of Bike Newton. She is an advocate for cycling in Newton. On the Council, she sits on the Land Use Committee and the Public Safety & Transportation Committee and is a member of the Mayor’s Transportation Advisory Group. The Land Use Committee reviews matters relating to petitions for Special Permits and Site Plan Approvals, so it is heavily involved in property development.
Ms. Bowman supports the Village Center Redesign Project for a variety of reasons. She states that Newton’s housing stock consists chiefly of single-family housing and large apartment buildings. She expects that the new plan would help fill in the “missing middle” of multi-family housing on residential streets that are very close to the village centers. As well, she expects to see new village center buildings with ground-floor businesses and several floors of accessible apartments above. She said that allowing greater ease of housing development will make it more likely for nonprofits to build affordable housing. Ms. Bowman stated: “If we want to build more housing, we need to change the rules for what is allowed to be built.” And further, she said the city will have more housing by allowing more housing types, contending there are places near village centers where smaller multi-family housing makes much sense.
Ms. Bowman does not expect new zoning rules to cause dramatic changes to the overall environment of village centers, saying that development will focus on the less efficient buildings. She said that building housing in our village centers above stores is critical. It delivers a housing type that is desired by seniors, people with mobility challenges, and young people. Further, she contends that village center development will appeal to people who want to live without a car.
She spoke highly of a new City ordinance that will require electrification (no fossil fuels) for all new developments and major renovations. The ordinance takes effect when Newton reaches two housing benchmarks set by the state.
Regarding transportation, Ms. Bowman seeks to increase use of public transportation and cycling to make the city less car dependent. She highlighted the relatively small number of cars associated with the Newtonville developments on Austin and Washington Streets. (Each unit has an average of 0.7 cars.) She acknowledged that the commuter rail service is substandard but says that creating more housing near the stations would increase the likelihood of MBTA improvements.
Ms. Bowman believes Newton should take strong action to encourage more housing options and to reduce Newton’s carbon footprint.
Her campaign website is aliciabowman.org.