Image courtesy of Northland Investment Corp.
The Newton City Council has given Northland Investment Corp. the OK to build its planned, 23-acre mixed-use development on the site of the former Clarks North America headquarters, but a community group is threatening to get the vote overturned.
The council voted to back the development proposal last night, Dec. 2, according to Newton Patch. However, the RightSize Newton group, which has spearheded opposition to the project has said it will take advantage of a provision in the city’s charter to get the vote overturned. The group has 20 days to collect the signatures of 5 percent of the city’s voters, or about 3,000 people, to put the development to a city-wide ballot. The group cites school costs and transportation concerns as its primary concerns.
“Northland Newton Development is a national model of sustainability, affordable housing, transit demand management, historic preservation, open space, master planning and community amenities,” Northland Senior Vice President Peter Standish said in a statement. “The outcome of [last night’s] vote is a testament to the exhaustive and collaborative efforts of the Land Use Committee, the Council of the Whole, city professionals, and community stakeholders all of whom helped to vet and shape this visionary mixed-use master plan. We look forward to proceeding quickly to make this vision a reality.”
Northland’s project would see around 800 apartments – 140 of them affordable – built on the Clark’s site and on the site of an old mill along the congested and largely transit-less Needham Street commercial corridor in a “Main Street”-style mixed use development. To deal with traffic concerns, the company proposed to create a $1.5 million shuttle bus service open to tenants and area residents to connect the development to mass transit. Since being initially proposed, the project has shrunk 45 percent to 1.1 million square feet through negotiations with the city and neighbors.
“I applaud Mayor [Ruthanne] Fuller, our city councilors and the developer on this collaborative effort. In the end, they’ve agreed to a project that meets the goals of Newton’s Economic Development Strategy and the Needham Street Vision Plan. They’ve crafted a project that will be good for Newton and our region,” Newton-Needham Regional Chamber of Commerce President Greg Riebman said in a statement. “This is an outstanding project and a rare opportunity for Newton. But faced with months of delays and the prospect of losing a low-turnout ballot referendum, Northland could instead to turn to the state’s 40B housing law, which would still generate much-needed housing for our region but result in the loss of many millions of dollars in traffic mitigation, free shuttles, parks, school building funds and other community give-backs that Northland and the city have thoughtfully negotiated.”
Updated 3 p.m. Dec. 3, 2019: This story has been updated with comment from Northland Investment Corp.
