City Infrastructure

We have obviously left too many infrastructure problems unaddressed for too long. These include not only fire stations and some of our schools, but also roadways, other public buildings and parks. We must give serious consideration to devoting more of our city revenues to addressing these capital needs but we do not have the resources to address all of them at once. We must set priorities to determine which of the needs are the most serious and most pressing. We know that the facilities problems at Zervas and Angier are very serious, as are the problems at the fire station in Ward 5. In the necessary establishment of infrastructure repair priorities I will lobby vigorously to put the needs of Zervas, Angier, Countryside and the Eliot Street fire station at the top of the list.

 

Development

How do we get to the Newton We Want? The Newton we once had now has traffic and congestion and sometimes unsightly development. Our over complicated zoning ordinances have too many loop holes. They are convoluted and often require an attorney to figure them out. I docketed an item to request that the Mayor hire outside professional consultants to rewrite the language in our ordinances to find out if the language is saying what we want it to say and getting us to where we want to wind up. We have a general idea of how we want our zoning ordinances to help us, but our existing document leaves too much open for interpretation.

I was one of four aldermen appointed to the Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee in 2002 along with many Newton residents and city professionals. The Newton We Want Comprehensive Plan is a major step forward for encouraging development in our village centers where there is access to public transportation, adding to our housing stock and improving our business climate. A major tool from the Comprehensive Plan is to adopt a neighborhood Area Planning process. This planning concept encourages the participation of all stakeholders but in a workable framework.