On Wednesday, July 9, the City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee met to consider the “current state of Newton’s commercial office space,” as the Committee’s agenda described the discussion item.
According to the agenda, the discussion was intended to focus on new commercial office leases, the current commercial office space available, office tenants that have left Newton or downsized, and strategies to recruit new commercial office tenants to Newton.
Asking to be heard
Before the July 9 meeting, Charles River Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Greg Reibman contacted Committee Chair R. Lisle Baker (Ward 7) and Vice Chair John Oliver (Ward 1), requesting to participate in the discussion.
However, Councilor Baker informed Reibman that the meeting would not include an opportunity for public comment.
In a July 8 Chamber newsletter, Reibman described Councilor Baker’s response as “unacceptable,” urging community members who shared his view to contact the City Council.
Reibman told Fig City News that he was aware of approximately 25 letters in support of the Chamber that business owners and individuals sent to the Council.
One such letter, written by the League of Women Voters of Newton Co-Presidents Frieda Dweck and Jane Harper, said in part:
“If this is truly a ‘discussion’ of issues of concern to the business community and they are highly knowledgeable about the falling demand for office space, why not allow the business community input into that discussion from the beginning where they have the opportunity to help influence the best solutions?”
Reibman said that the support that the Chamber received was meaningful to him.
“I think it was pretty significant that there was a general concern from the business community, not just from me, that it doesn’t make any sense to have this conversation without talking to people,” he said. “You wouldn’t design an airplane cockpit without talking to pilots about what the cockpit means …and you shouldn’t be talking about how to fix the office market without talking to people who own office buildings or are trying to rent office buildings and understand it. It makes no sense to me not to sit down and listen to people who can provide the expertise, and that’s very disappointing.”
Committee Chair and Vice Chair respond
Ultimately, Committee Chair Baker decided to stand by his original position. At the beginning of the July 9 meeting, he explained why he denied Reibman’s request to participate in the discussion.
“I went back to look at the Open Meeting Law, and the Open Meeting Law is actually very instructive. It says, ‘no person shall address a meeting of a public body without permission of the Chair,’ so it is an extraordinary responsibility,” he said. “I want to make clear this is summer. This is July. We don’t make decisions, generally, at the high moment in the summer …this is not the only conversation we’ll have. It’s really the beginning conversation.”
The meeting began with a brief presentation from Economic Development Director John Sisson; then, City Councilors spoke with Sisson, Deputy Director of Planning Jen Ciara, and members of the City’s Economic Development Commission about the state of commercial office space in Newton.
Sisson said that he wanted to prioritize local business growth by focusing on feasible steps that would be within the City’s power to initiate.
“What is actionable, given our current level of staffing and given our current budget, is to focus on the things that we control,” he said. “I want to make sure we have not only have our welcome mat dusted off and the front porch swept, but I want the front door open. Right now, I sometimes am not sure if the front door is going to be open. Is it going to trigger a special permit? What about the parking requirements? I want to make sure that the City of Newton is open for business before we start inviting people.”
Sisson later clarified that he was open to pursuing goals that would be broader in scope.
“I would like to commend the members of the Commission and the Chamber of Commerce for pushing me to be more aspirational. I’m very focused on ‘what can I accomplish now,’ and my plate’s pretty full …but we do need to be thinking long-term.”
Committee Vice Chair Oliver said that he wanted to ensure that the Committee took sufficient data into account before implementing significant changes, particularly when it came to zoning.
“Somehow, we have to figure out, in my humble opinion, how are we going to get more data? Because if we don’t do that before we start changing things, we’re not going to know if anything’s working, other than some anecdotal feedback here and there,” he said. “I’m not comfortable making major zoning changes until or unless we have a sense that …we’re getting what we want, for the most part.”
The Chamber reacts
Reibman told Fig City News that he was disappointed by the meeting.
“It wasn’t clear how serious a problem this was,” he said. “I think that that’s because neither I nor the building owners or tenants had an opportunity to give the first-hand experience. It’s one thing for someone from the Mayor’s office to talk about it, but they’re not living it.”
Additionally, Reibman said that he disagreed with Councilor Oliver’s concerns about insufficient data.
“Councilor Oliver mentioned that there wasn’t data, and I wish I was there, because I could have pointed out that there is data about office vacancy across the region, and it is not unique,” he said. “So really, knowing that there’s 23% vacancy across Greater Boston should be enough data for them to say, ‘this is a problem, right?’ and then to have a discussion with the people that are trying to rent office space and lease space to understand what their challenges are.”
The 23% figure, Reibman said, was published by the Boston Business Journal.
“It may be difficult to get Newton-specific data, but it’s not difficult to get region-wide data, and the same challenges that are happening in Newton are not different from what’s happening in Needham or Waltham or Brookline or any of our surrounding communities,” he said. “The only difference is that some communities will make it easier to attract businesses than others.”
In a July 11 Chamber newsletter, Reibman outlined five points he said that he had wanted to raise in the July 9 meeting.
- More diverse housing is needed, as companies want to locate where workers and customers live;
- Business development is a competition between Newton and other municipalities;
- Speed is key, and Newton needs to make itself attractive to businesses by making approval inspection processes faster;
- Affordability is important; with businesses facing high taxes, rents and fees, Newton needs to make it less stressful to operate in the city; and
- The city’s reputation is vital in order to attract businesses.
A path forward
At the end of the July 9 meeting, Councilor Baker said that he hoped to continue the conversation about commercial office space, noting that he wanted to prioritize outreach with the Chamber.
“What I would hope is that we don’t have this conversation just be a conversation that dies, so I would like, specifically, outreach to the Chamber because I know they wanted to participate,” he said. “Because of the constraints we have indicated, that’s not possible tonight, but I do want to have them involved.”
In a July 16 letter to Councilor Baker, Reibman indicated his hopes for future collaboration.
“The chamber is committed to having constructive conversations with the council. We believe the chamber can provide expertise that would sometimes complement and other times differ from that shared by the Economic Development Director or EDC,” he wrote. “I was pleased to hear you say, after your ‘discussion,’ that you had hoped to find a way to involve the chamber in the future. We’re standing by, anxious to have that conversation.”
Theo Younkin is this summer’s Fig City News managing student intern, a rising senior at Newton South High School, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the NSHS Lion’s Roar.
