Vicki Danberg is running for re-election as one of two At-Large City Councilors from Ward 6 and spoke recently with Fig City News.
First elected to the Newton City Council in 2004, Ms. Danberg is currently Vice-Chair of the City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee and Chair of the Real Property Reuse Committee. Ms. Danberg is a founding Board member of the Newton Cultural Alliance (NCA) and was a board member of the Newton History Museum and the Newton Schools Foundation. She’s proud that the NCA purchased and renovated the Allen Center in West Newton, creating a performing arts and gallery space for the community.
She holds an MBA in finance and management and has had a varied working career, including a twelve-year stint teaching at Brookline High School, and she founded and ran a contract manufacturing firm overseas focused on medical and dental products.
Ms. Danberg is a vigorous proponent of the need to create more housing in Newton, saying there is a crying need for housing in Greater Boston and that Newton has plenty of infrastructure to handle more housing. She says that stable housing is the single greatest predictor of success in life – and that lacking housing leads to anxiety, stress, and academic difficulties.
As an eighteen-year member of the City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee, she strongly supports the new Village Center Overlay District and zoning for the MBTA Communities Act. Ms. Danberg seeks a combination of affordable housing and market-rate housing in any expansion of Newton housing.
She described the zoning changes Newton made in 1987, which reduced the maximum height for new commercial buildings (without a special permit) from six stories to twenty-four feet. Other 1987 zoning changes established many single-family zones, limiting the potential for new two- and three-family houses.
Ms. Danberg said Newton needs to allow the construction of three-and-one-half to four-and-one-half story buildings in village centers, by right. (“By right” means the approval process is streamlined so that projects that comply with zoning standards receive approval without a discretionary review process. Also, she favors allowing more two- and three-family houses.
She is aware of the vocal opposition to larger buildings in village centers, but said that Newton needs new housing, new ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant spaces, and new commercial spaces, stating that Newton’s village centers can accommodate the modest growth. Further she said that after zoning changes, physical change happens organically and gradually. She believes each village will retain its own character.
As a member of the City Council, Ms. Danberg has actively advocated for pedestrians and cyclists. She led the passage of Newton’s mandatory snow shoveling law and worked with transportation engineers to establish Newton’s first bicycle lane in her ward. She said that Newton needs more protected bike lanes.
Finally, she spoke of her support for the City’s ambitious climate plan, which she says will also benefit from the changes in zoning. Ms. Danberg led the effort to eliminate polystyrene containers in 2020, and more recently to reduce single-use plastic products in Newton. A new law, passed by the City Council in September, for example, requires all takeout food containers (above four ounces) to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
Her campaign website is vickidanberg.com.
