As reported previously, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s January 16 newsletter announced the beginning of an initiative for a new plaza in Newton Centre. The proposed space would extend beyond the current Newton Centre Green and utilize 51 parking spaces from the current Langley Lot.
Planning Department Director Barney Heath said that while the City was planning to repave the Langley lot in the spring, planners wondered if there “might be a potential use that would bring some vibrancy to the area and create an opportunity for people to come and frequent local businesses.”
“We’ve seen some kind of local successes of this, [like] the Bram Way area in Newtonville that’s proven to be a very popular place for people to gather and hold events, and it’s just generally a good place for commerce and the existing businesses,” he said. “That’s been a rousing success. I’m not saying it’s exactly equivalent to Newton Centre, but there are some parallels.”
Several business owners in Newton Centre expressed a concern that there is no need for the plaza because of the current Newton Centre Green and nearby Newton Centre Playground. Chief of Long Range Planning Zachary LeMel, however, said that the plaza would be a complement to the Green and that it would offer the opportunity for more active recreation.
“The Green offers an opportunity for more passive recreation and also has a larger maintenance need…and so creating a plaza space adjacent to the Green offers something a little bit different,” he said. “And then for the playground, it’s an incredible resource. We want this space to be seen as a space for Newton Centre, but we also want to see it as a space for all the businesses that are there to be their kind of front porch.”
The project, if implemented, would utilize ARPA funds, “available at the end of the year,” according to Heath.
The City found that much of the space in the Langley Lot is currently being occupied by employees of businesses, rather than customers. To counter the loss of the 51 central parking spaces, they said that they are considering a parking permit program that would allocate less-desirable spaces elsewhere to employees, freeing up the Langley Lot. Additionally, they are thinking of removing certain spaces in the Lot for car parking.
“We’re looking at ways to maximize the existing parking that exists in the triangle and elsewhere in Newton Centre. For example, there’s an employee parking permit program that’s designed to offer less desirable spaces for employees so they have a place to park that would free up spots in the center,” Heath said. “For example, in the Triangle Lot, there’s 12 spaces that are employee parking spaces. If those could be removed, that’s an additional 12. We also have a Blue Bike station there and we have Zip cars. There’s space within the triangle right now that isn’t available for the public, so we’re looking at efficiencies everywhere to maximize additional parking,”
If the parking permit is to go into effect, then the less desirable spaces would likely be in “a surrounding area that’s within a five to seven minute walk of the triangle. We’re not looking any further than that,” said LeMel.
Before announcing the pilot, Heath said that the City reached out to some of Newton Centre’s local businesses, and that now the City is starting to receive more feedback.
“The immediate gut reaction is that ‘you’re taking away parking.’ I don’t think it was clear to a lot of people that some work had been done to find additional parking spaces. That’s one of the things that’s helpful for them to understand,” he said. “It’s also helpful for them to understand this is a pilot. It’s a trial to see if it can work, and what the impacts are going to be, and what the benefits are going to be. It’s designed to be a trial so that if it’s not successful, it can be turned back into parking again.”
This summer, the City plans to conduct the trial run of the plaza to gauge the community’s response; however, Heath said that while some of these plans have been initiated, there is still room for community input.
“It’s important to note that we’re at an early stage here, where the space hasn’t been designed yet at all,” he said. “That’s still to be determined in terms of what it would look like. It’s a little early. All ideas right now are welcome, and we want to work collaboratively to come up with something that works for everybody.”
The timeline on the City’s webpage for the project notes that community engagement regarding a design for the plaza will begin in February.
Bella Ishanyan is a Fig City News student reporter, Massachusetts High School Journalist of the Year, and a freshman at UMass Amherst.
