Zoning & Planning Committee - December 8, 2025

Thank you.

So welcome, everyone. This is a meeting of the Zoning and Planning Committee. And indeed, it is the last meeting of the Zoning and Planning Committee for the year end of the term. It is a certain historical moment in its own right. And we are very grateful to be joined by all of you online and those in the room. When we go around, we'll ask people to introduce themselves. they'll do a better job than I will but I want to make sure that we make sure everyone is recognized and we're going to have several items for discussion tonight and then A number of items are on the agenda, but they are all anticipated to be voted in at the end so that they can be refiled if the doctor so desire in the new term because we're not going to have time to deal with them in this term.

and then at the conclusion of all of that heavy lifting of committee business we will celebrate two of our number in the planning department who are Keith. That doesn't mean we don't thank, where's Zach? Zach, we thank you, but you're coming here at least on the... Return Engagement List, and we're going to lay this ahead. So thank you. Of course. And also, I want to thank this Holden here, who's to my left, who's managing all of this process and has been an invaluable part of the committee. I would say that on the table for those who are attending in person are some fluids, some eggnog, just plain eggnog. Nothing exotic, but also some magnificent cookies.

The vice chair's function in this committee has been extraordinary, and this is another opportunity to notice how extraordinary it has been because he has brought us cookies from and there's a pre-cooking minimum. They're meant to be they're meant to be tried out and take a plate and some napkins and they don't have to wait till the end because we'll just be staying so all right so with that let me just start with the Two items that are somewhat parallel to each other and therefore will probably make sense to discuss together. They're items 63, 24, and that's referred to public facilities and zoning planning committee requesting an update on the status of the implementing the climate action plan. And then the second item is a discussion of climate resiliency here Updates and plans and the packet items themselves are extensive, but I won't take time to read all of that in the record so that we can get underway.

I do want to recognize, however, at the outset that we're joined by the vice chair of the committee, Councilor Oliver. Albright from Ward 2, Councilor Getz in the room from Ward 5. We're certainly glad to have Councilor Leary from Ward 1 as a visitor and guest and all of that.

I thought this was a joint meeting and I had to be here.

We were delighted to have you. Councilor Danberg has joined us. And then online, we have Councilor Wright, and we are also joined by Councilor Kalis online, I see Councilor Silver online, also Councilor Block online. Wright, and then we're also joined by Mr. Lee of the Law Department. Thank you very much.

And now, Councilor Krintzman.

And now, Councilor Krintzman. All right. Those of you online who are still tempted by the quickies, you're welcome to move over here, but in the meantime, we will get underway. So I think I'd like to turn the meeting over to Ms. Berwick, and then would you introduce the people who are going to assist you in this process so that we can make sure that we've got everybody properly accounted for. Is that all right? You're muted, Ms. Berwick.

There we go.

Okay, I didn't think I was being allowed to unmute myself. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Baker. So I want to introduce to this group somebody you probably already know, who's Caroline Weiss, who's sitting next to you, has the benefit of the eggnog and cookies, unlike me. and she is the city's climate action coordinator and we were under the impression, Councilor Baker, that we were going to present mainly tonight on the Development of Climate Action Plan 2.0, although we're happy to also talk about part of that was going to be talking about progress under Climate Action Plan 1.0. So I'm happy to proceed. We're happy to proceed in any way you'd like.

No, I think you have the material you provided in background, I think is really helpful. And I just wanted to make sure that we give adequate justice to that because you and many more. Thank you. in your absence with cookies and fluids.

Right. I get that you're sustaining yourself. So the presentation that you're referring to is both an update on progress under CAP 1.0 and in more somewhat more depth the development of CAP 2.0. So would you like me to start there?

Yeah, well, I would start with a sort of progress report and then tell us where you're going. I think that would be helpful if that's

Happy to do that. And that's actually in the presentation that you have slides four and five. which focuses on where we've been under CAP 1.0 and is that up on your Are you seeing, is that showing on your screen or?

Use less and green the rest. This is just the opening sort of title slide.

OK, well, you might if we're talking about progress under CAP 1.0. It would be great if you would flip to slide four, which has a timeline of progress.

Are you going to run the slides? Yeah, I'm running the slides.

I joined the meeting remotely, so I'll share the slides. When you're ready to advance, Ann, just let me know. But it sounds like you'd like me to jump to the timeline.

Yeah, to slide four. Is that what you have as number to the timeline of slide four?

I don't know if you can see what we can see. Well, I'm...

I can't, but I'm looking at my copy of what I believe you're looking at. This gives the timeline of past progress, both under CAP 1.0 and where Newton has been really since 2010. And I think it is a moment for some. There's a lot we shouldn't be congratulating ourselves about, but we could stop for a moment, I think, and congratulate ourselves about what we have accomplished. So starting in 2010, in fact, Newton was one of the first group of state-designated green communities and under that program. The city has received actually many millions of dollars in state grants.

I'm not going to read this whole timeline to you, but We adopted the first Climate Action Plan in 2019. and since then the specialized code was adopted by the city council which is the most the state's most progressive building code. Electrification electrification ordinance also adopted, requiring all new construction and major renovations to be all electric. Village Center Overlay District, Berto actually signed into law and a Berto administrator just recently hired. So there's Ben, an enormous amount of progress. If you look at

the next slide can you Caroline or whoever is managing this um if you call up the next slide on progress um there's There's a lot that's been accomplished both under CAP 1.0 and outside of CAP 1.0. For example, Berto was adopted. The fossil fuel-free ordinance was adopted. Neither was actually even mentioned in CAP 1.0. We're trying to implement all of CAP 1.0 and then CAP 2.0, but we're not bound sort of with any rigidity not to take up other measures that come our way. So I just want to highlight on progress since CAP 1.0. I'm not going to read you the whole thing. Work with partners, especially Green Newton, Mothers Out Front, 350.org.

The city had the wisdom to hire Caroline Weiss as our new Climate Action Coordinator. formerly known as a city energy coach and Caroline runs the energy coach program. So I've already mentioned a number of other things on this list. All new schools are all electric. Several municipal buildings are now all electric. and for the first time in the city's public buildings, we have ground source heat pumps at Franklin and Countryside Elementary Schools, which is a huge, hugely important. I'm happy to talk more about that. Then moving on to slide six, I'm going to be painfully frank and say some of this is disappointing. As you can see,

And again, I'm not going to read all of those 1500 heat pumps installed in the last 6 years. That's not enough. I'm sure all of you understand why how important that is and why that's important. We can't clean natural gas and fuel oil that we use for heating, but electricity can be clean if it's generated by renewables and therefore very important to move towards electrification of everything that can be electrified. I want to point out that of the 20 plus megawatts of solar on city facilities. That includes about 5.5 megawatt, sorry, Megawatts on residential and commercial projects. That actually, that number actually includes solar on municipal facilities in which there's about 5.5

and a lot more in the works. So I want to just give you some context on that one. Some of you may have heard me say this in the past. But in the beginning years of the Patrick administration, I served for all eight years in the Patrick administration. In 2007, our Climate team in the Patrick administration was discussing what we should articulate as the state's solar goal. and we struggled with the question of whether four megawatts as a state goal would be viewed as laughably ambitious. So notice we're now at 20 megawatts We said four megawatts might be ambitious as a state goal. We're now at 20 plus megawatts in Newton. The state's at about 5,500 megawatts.

So for those of us who need a bit of uplift, I think that's at least worth noting. But not all these numbers are as high as we wish they were, obviously. So would you like me, Councilor Baker, would you like me to go on with implementation?

Thank you, because we've been joined by other members of the council and council elect, so I want to recognize Gatz is here and also we've been joined online I think by Councilor Farrell and Councilor Roach is here and anybody else I haven't seen Katie that Is there another? One of our councillors or councillors would like. No. OK. All right. So just pause for a second. Anybody have any questions so far? Vice Chair?

Thank you. Thank you for the info here. I just want to make sure I'm tracking along with a couple of these numbers. When we talk about 1,500 heat pumps, are we literally talking about Head units or homes with headphones?

I think we're talking about homes. Homes, you think? Yeah. Thanks for that clarification. Yes.

Okay. All right. It's better than individual because I would imagine that A lot of homes in Newton would have multiple, at least head units, if not the exterior units. Sure. Yes.

And if I could add, it's slightly an underestimate as well. From 2019 to 2023, there were about 1,200 heat pumps installed as part of MassSave. So that's not counting heat pumps installed about MassSave and Senescent Newton. And data from Mount St. Vincent has not yet been released for 2024 or 2025. So just from a quick glance at our permit data, there's about 250 additional on top of that 1,200, which is likely quite a low estimate.

Great. And that was going to be my next question overall. Because you start to look at the total amount of solar installed in residential and commercial projects. And I was just wondering, how do we know?

This comes from MassCCPTS, which is production tracking system data. So there's actually a statewide website called MA Greenhouse Gas Inventory that was recently released and it pulls from state databases and you can search by municipality. So 2028, Mabel, Watson, Sullivan, Newton is actually directly from that source, which comes from the Smart Data site.

And then are all installers required to report? What's installed where? Is that pretty hard?

I know this is very comprehensive. Okay. But it is from 2023 to 2024. So again, in reality, that number is certainly higher.

It's probably off a little bit, but okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Councilor Wright.

um what would be helpful and maybe you can redo this is um here's our progress but this was our goal so we can see if we over you know went beyond or if we're you know falling short and then maybe some bullets on some ideas on how to meet these goals because it's great to have all these numbers but again until you told us about the solar you know it meant nothing to me, you know, compared to what the goals were. So that would be very, very helpful.

We do have an upcoming slide that I can skip to. It would be helpful to give some of that context.

Oh, you can do it along the way. and then what one's something interesting I just had Mass Save to do to see about heat pumps and I was shocked that it was going to be $75,000 and they told me I had to keep both of my furnaces.

No, that's not true. I'm not questioning that you were told that, but it's not true that you have to keep your furnaces. That's not true.

So I have a really old house and I think that's why they were saying that I needed to keep my furnaces because I mean why would I get heat pumps if I'm going to have to replace my furnaces anyways along the way, especially for that price.

No, as I said, it's not the case that you have to keep your furnaces.

Well, I think what I'm going to suggest is we go through the presentation and then come back to the sort of where do we go with this both for the city's aggregate conversation and also individuals like you who are getting information that may not be fully accurate. Yes, thank you very much.

Anne, I was wondering how much more opportunities do we have to put on additional solar on school and municipal properties and locations. Do you know how much we'd like to be there? And also, isn't solar important for us in order to because electricity is getting more expensive if you can that would really help defray the costs because it's just going up a lot.

Yes, okay, so as I said, I think I said there's about 5.5 megawatts now on city facilities. There's about another one and a half megawatts of Solar Capacity on municipal buildings that are in the final stages of construction and awaiting Utility Interconnection. And then there's another eight projects beyond that that we're working on getting under contract. I would be surprised if there are a lot more opportunities, cost-effective opportunities for city projects beyond that currently. Think about roofs. You're not gonna put solar on roofs that you know are going to need to be replaced or significantly repaired in the near term.

and although I would love to see solar on every municipal parking lot, well on every large parking lot, it's more expensive to put solar on parking lots than on rooftops. So I would be surprised if there are a lot more rooftop opportunities beyond what we've already done and beyond what's in the works. Currently, that is.

Yes. I mean, I was wondering if we had a goal of what we'd like to see in the next five years, for example. for the amount of solar installations that we have on a school and municipal property. Is there a number there or?

Well, as I said, there's eight currently in the works under construction. No, sorry, not eight, 1.5 megawatts more. Under Construction, and another eight projects that we're working on getting under contract.

Okay, thank you very much.

I want to make sure we get through the presentation, but cast your guess and then...

The only question I have is comparative, you know, in terms of other municipalities, you know, our goals, you know, in terms of just regionally how we're doing. Yeah.

Well, good question. Newton actually has Well, I believe, I can't say this with absolute certainty, but I'm pretty close to certain that Newton has more megawatts of solar on city facilities than any other municipality in the Commonwealth. So with respect to solar, we're not doing well enough, but we're doing better than everybody else.

Thank you. Anyone else? Councilor Danberg.

Yes. Question about the percentage of the total electric bill so to speak that we now cover with our solar.

I'm sorry, maybe I didn't hear everything, but I'm not sure I understand your question.

The city's bill?

Yes. The city gets an electric bill, let's say. All of our 85 buildings and everything, we have a number that our electricity costs us. Do you know what percentage of that total amount that we owe electric companies we are covering with the solar that we have?

If this answers your question, I think we are generating with solar on municipal buildings about 40%, between 35 and 40%. of the, well, is it of the city? Anyway, of those buildings, solar demand, electricity demand.

A total consumption on the buildings that we have solar on.

35 to 40% of total city electricity consumption saving us

Do we have any buildings that generate more electricity with the solar than the electricity that that particular building consumes?

Well, at any given moment, yes. So you can certainly imagine in the summer when a school is closed, are not operating as a school, that it's feeding more energy, electricity into the grid than it's using at that point. So as a result of that, the city builds up credits, which it then can call upon when it's not generating as much electricity as the building is using. So it's a sort of moment by moment question.

Okay, I think that answers close enough to my question. Thank you.

So Ms. Berger, can you not see the slides and they're not being shared? I mean, we can see them. I'm just wondering just to make it easy on you.

No, I can't. I can see. I'm looking at my own copy of the slides and my own notes.

Well, we'll just try and make sure that Ms. Weiss is keeping current with you and vice versa.

Does it sound like I'm talking about something you're... No, I just want to make it easy on you.

Thank you. Progress since CAP 101.0, and you were talking... Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm looking at. Any other highlights? We can read those, but is there anything you want to just pick out that you want to add to that slide? Otherwise, we'll move on.

Well, in addition to congratulating this city for its wisdom in hiring Caroline Weiss, which is a move that Sam and I thank. are lucky stars for on a daily basis. I just think the city council should be proud of itself for the progressive measures that it has adopted in the last however many 18 months or whatever it's been, a specialized code, Berto, the fossil fuel, which by the way makes us one of only 10 communities in the Commonwealth that can require

all new construction to be all electric so I mean I think those are in addition to the brilliant work frankly that Josh Morse does in making sure that new schools are all electric and municipal buildings are electrified whenever there's an opportunity for that.

Okay. We also have various gadgets. Not solar powered, though.

Councilor Albrun.

You may come to this later. I don't know, but I'm curious if our electrification ordinance is effective. The number of new starts or are things going along as they always have?

As far as I know, yes, we need to do reporting for the state by June 30th of this year. So last year before I realized we didn't have to report that year because our All right, good. One of the things, Ms. Weiss, I think would be helpful is if

As you listen to these questions, as you think about the next time you come back and we have another conversation about this issue about goals and about where we are compared to our peers,

So are we going now to what we talked about, five and six? So.

Yep, I have seven up on the screen now.

You have seven up. Okay. So you want to go beyond that to the progress? Are there any questions before we get to slide seven? Okay, sure. I'll go ahead with slide seven.

So

Challenges, of which there are obviously many. Vehicle miles traveled have increased slightly. We don't know why. We suspect It's some kind of COVID artifact. People started going into the office more, that kind of thing. There was less driving for a while related to COVID. That's our guess. We don't know for sure. Residential electrification is a challenge, no surprise in that. We are moving forward thanks to the Energy Coach Program, Community First Partnership, which is a collaboration. with Green Newton to increase participation in mass save energy efficiency programs. But there's no getting away from it. Residential electrification is challenging.

and Newton power choice some of you may be aware we've just signed and recently signed and announced a new Newton power choice contract. So since the beginning of Newton Power Choice, Newton absolutely led the state in the percentage of renewable electricity credits that people had an opportunity to purchase under Newton Power Choice. And we are not including renewable energy credits in the new Newton Power Choice contract because of reasons I can go into, but related to changes in federal policy. which means it would be costly but not productive in terms of encouraging new renewables for us to include the purchase of RECs in Newton Power Choice.

We are under Newton Power Choice looking at a couple of other opportunities, but they're not fully baked yet. Other opportunities to to include support for renewable energy as part of Newton Power Choice. In any event, we're not there yet. Newton Power Choice, however, the new contract is lower in price The price is lower than just the earlier, the current actually, Newton Power Choice contract and is also less than the current. and Eversource basic service price. So there's a benefit under new Newton power choice in terms of price, but not renewables. Other, should I move on to slide eight, barriers to progress?

Question from Councilor Wright.

Just a quick question. Vehicle miles travel have increased. It'd be nice to know from what year to what year.

From 2019, no. 2020 to 2025 are the years available in the mass vehicle census. That's where we've been getting it from.

Yes. So that's not granular enough to really tell us much.

Right.

So that, so on that. Excuse me, you don't have to be recognized.

You would like to ask a question?

um so that's an aggregate of vehicle miles it's not by household it provides an aggregate for vehicle miles traveled in total in Newton and then you can also look at like The average daily number of people miles traveled, so like per car or vehicle registered in Newton. You can also look at the percentage of vehicles that are electric, vehicles that are plug-in hybrids. So this is all data that we'll be tracking on our dashboard, which I'll share more about in a few slides. but the site's great, I recommend taking a look.

Okay, but there's no data that would allow us to map the vehicle miles traveled to neighborhoods.

Not that I'm aware of, so that would be great if there were.

unfortunately. I want to keep the slide moving, but counselor.

Just quickly, how do we know how many vehicle miles have been traveled? How is that? How do you know? I have a review. How do you know what's on my dashboard?

It's a state database, so I actually should look more into the attributes of where they're getting that data from, but I know that the vehicle counts are from vehicles registered in Newton, so I'm sure there's some calculation applied to determine by number of vehicles registered and how many miles they're tracking on state roads to get some kind of estimate, but that's a really great question and I will look into it. Thank you.

No, I don't think it's quite that specific.

Who's looking at your dashboard, right? Besides you. The people who are looking at her dashboard besides her are the folks who are doing the yearly. Yeah.

Right.

Good point.

Yeah.

And they're required to report the mileage. Very smart. Very smart.

But again, I think this is the kind of question for the next time you come around.

And would you like the next slide?

Slide 8? Are we on slide 8? OK. So barriers to progress. Don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but obviously the role of the federal and state government we just mentioned, for example. the effect on Newton power choice of changes in federal policy. Also, as I'm sure many of you know, there have been changes recently in federal policy affecting vehicle mileage standards. So we're at the mercy in some respects of the federal government. The city doesn't have absolute authority to do everything it wants with respect to and many other issues. For example, we can't adopt our own building or electrical code. We have to adopt

We have some choices in terms of the state building codes that are available, three to be exact, but we can't... promulgate our own building code. There are a number of other ways in which the city has respects in which the city has somewhat limited leverage. Obviously we have limited city budget and resources. where I think I want to call out the fact that we're very fortunate to have a robust sustainability team you're seeing two of us and of course Sam who sorry he couldn't be here tonight and also now we have a Berto administrator Darius Bailey So we have a pretty robust team, but if we had all the money we wanted or that I wanted anyway, I would love to be able to put more money into supporting subsidizing electrification, both initial Capital costs of electrification and operating costs.

Then obviously we had the COVID pandemic, no need to belabor that. and we need a cultural shift, right? And that's both a barrier and I would say maybe our most significant challenge. If everybody were as convinced as a lot of us are about the need for addressing climate change then we wouldn't have to work so hard on getting people to drive EVs or take public transportation or put heat pumps in place. But anyway, so I'm not probably telling you anything you don't know here. Any questions on this or should we go keep going?

I think the point about the subsidizing electrification and again part of the challenge I suspect that all of us run into is just the information gap between what is available out there and what people understand can be done. And we've even had Councilor Wright indicate that there's some information that may not be accurate coming even through sort of official or semi-official sources. So part of the longer range issue that I don't think we can solve tonight, but again, is how do we take advantage of Ms. Weiss and her team here to make sure the public is well informed and then can make the right decision.

Super, super important point. There's a lot of misinformation out there, including misinformation about whether heat pumps perform in cold weather, which they do.

We'll have a test tonight and maybe you can find out.

Well, I think, as I've mentioned a number of times, we have a house in New Hampshire in the mountains that doesn't have a furnace. And we're still... surviving comfortably.

Your demonstrative evidence of that. Anyway, so let's go on to the next slide.

All right, so I'm going to take this next section, which is about the process of developing our updated climate action plan. You may recognize the slide from when we presented back in May So back to April, when the process for updating this plan started, our team had conversations with department heads about what they were working on and what they were planning for related to climate action. And those conversations haven't ceased. They've been ongoing. We also got some early input from our environmental community here in Newton back in April. which I can thank Demi for helping me organize. We then in drafting our outline assessed our progress with where we'd been in CAP 1.0 and identified both ongoing and new initiatives. which informed that outline. Over the summer we wrote our draft climate action plan which we were glad to finally be able to share in October of this fall which we've engaged the community on and I'll share greater detail on that in the next slide.

More recently our team has been going through all of that feedback which has been incredibly informative and we're very grateful to all of you that have provided feedback into our community for helping improve the plan and there's been ongoing revisions of that draft. Currently, I'm happy to say the draft is in the hands of our draft designer, who will make it prettier and more accessible to read, I think, than just a text-heavy Word document. And she's also helping develop our dashboard, which will be an independent website that we'll link to on our city site. sharing our progress on various metrics identified in the draft plan. In the next term, we're looking forward to working with the new mayor and council to docket the plan with council and after that our main focus will be of course implementation and continuing to improve our measurement of our progress. So a text-heavy slide, but I thought it'd be helpful to provide detail here. So as I mentioned, we've been having ongoing conversations with several study departments.

Sustainability does not live alone in our team, but really is being worked on by so many different staff. On the community side, we've engaged with folks in here in Newton way back in April and Earth Day all the way through the pumpkin smash in October. I would table at community events often with a large poster saying what would you like to see in Newton's Climate Action Plan and a category for each chapter and people get to write what they wanted to see and it sparked some great conversations. and there are also several presentations about the plan such as a climate prep week at the library and our November 3rd public presentation. Once we opened the plan for public comment, residents and councilors and community was notified through our website, mayor's newsletter, our comment newsletter, social media, over 30 direct emails to community organizations We really put some effort into making sure it got out to people, especially given a limited turnaround time.

Comments were accepted through an online form, email, and the listening session we had on November 3rd, which I think went really well and was nicely attended. Since then, we've been going through an iterative review of all the feedback we've received and revising the plan alongside the development of our public dashboard, sharing the metrics that we have so far. which we'll continually add to and I'm really excited to release that to the public hopefully within a few weeks in a draft form. So now to get to a bit of the substance of the second climate action plan. Its goals are twofold. the plan reaffirms the city's commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050 by mitigating climate change or reducing our emissions and differently in this plan increasing the city's resilience so whereas before and we still have the climate change vulnerability assessment Now there's some resilience elements woven into the second climate action plan.

So the goals, of course, you can see are to reduce our emissions, to prepare our community for the effects of climate change and extreme weather that we're already seeing here in Newton in terms of hotter days and more extreme flooding and so on. And because climate action brings so many benefits from health to possible financial savings, likely financial savings and stronger resilience. So this slide is what I was referencing previously in terms of some milestones we've put out there. We've heard a lot about specific goals for our strategies in the first common action plan. And one way that we and the rest of us data is by looking to the state's clean energy and climate plan, which also sets the 2050 net zero commitment and provides goals for 2030, as you can see in those first couple bullet points. Newton comprises about 1.2% of Massachusetts households.

So objectively speaking, and there could be an argument that these milestones should be higher, we would be by 2030, aiming to install around 6,000 heat pumps, which as you can see is now around 1,500 of 10,800 EVs registered in Newton. and about 100 megawatts of solar in Salton Newton. So as you can see, we have a long way to go to accelerate that progress, but we're excited about some things that are along the way that are raising the profile of climate issues, such as fertile I'm looking forward to that.

It's a little slower again.

And when is the heat pump pizza party? What financial incentives remain available?

And you're sure it's free pizza, not free heat pumps.

I wish we could do both. Again, if we had all the resources in the world, we'd be handing out heat pumps. But yeah.

Councilor Wright.

um under the mass clean energy and climate plan it's 8360 megawatts of solar and then under us is 100 megawatts

Okay.

Oh, that is the number.

Okay. It should be 1.2% of the 8,360 number. Okay. Thank you.

Are those existing milestones or these are new milestones that are part of this?

Well, okay, so let me just back up. There are existing state milestones that we've calculated Newton's percentage of and we've added them to the updated draft of 2.0, which is not yet on the website. We hope to post the designed updated draft

If I could add something to that, what Caroline said is obviously accurate. There is an argument, as she mentioned, that Newton's share should be higher than 1.2% of mass households, given that we're a wealthier community than many other communities in the Commonwealth.

Sure. Okay.

Yeah, so this quick slide, but I just wanted to provide a screenshot from our dashboard. I'm excited that it's moving along. It will cover each of the four chapters in our Climate Action Plan, or the four main ones, as you can see at the bottom there. And it's looking pretty robust. keep an eye out for that we will publicize it when it's ready to go just just to highlight there um and into some of the substance so we have four main chapters as I mentioned in the climate action plan the one not on the screen yet that we'll get to next is resilience but these first three chapters cover strategies for mitigation or reducing our emissions to limit the future impact of climate change. In each of these chapters, there are subdivided into actions and strategies that we commit to continuing and others that we're committing to exploring. So, for example, I'll just name a few of these in buildings and energy. The strategies in the Climate Action Plan 2.0 involve decarbonizing city buildings, continuing along that route, supporting residential electrification,

implementing building codes and standards like Berto and becoming a climate leader community, which is the next step up from the state's green communities and offers even more funding for decarbonizing municipal buildings. Our next chapter on transportation and mobility is about goals and strategies that with incentivized EVs, such as installing EV charging stations where we can, prioritizing infrastructure for sustainable transportation, reducing those vehicle miles traveled by making new biking and walking more accessible, and on the city side adopting a zero emissions first vehicle purchasing policy which is actually a part of becoming a climate leader community and then of course consumption disposal includes strategies like educating the community Further about reuse and waste reduction, improving recycling and composting collection in city facilities. And again, on the city side, implementing an environmentally preferred purchasing policy. And then I'll turn it to Anne to cover resilience.

So before you leave that for a minute, just any questions on, for instance, many years ago, we bought at the Rumford Avenue a compost I finally got somebody to help me. But it was an interesting idea that I think the city can help with. But if you don't know that it's there, you wouldn't buy one. The information side of this is really, I think, a vital part of what you're doing. So I'm glad you're doing it because it's a part of your mind too.

Me too. Absolutely. I look forward to similar events like that to just raise awareness and education.

I'm just curious, the climate leader community, which you said is a step up. So are there other cities and towns that are in that?

Yes, there's already, I want to say around 20.

20 ahead of us.

We wouldn't have been eligible for funds through this program yeah anyway because we the city recently received that $500,000 grant for the deep home chiller at the library so we were on a three-year hiatus from state grants and the green community user climate leaders program to begin with and once Sam came on board we have been working on the application right away which includes getting the zero emissions first purchasing policy developed or adopted and writing a decarbonization roadmap for which we have technical assistance so it's Moving along as quickly as possible. We're not losing out on any funding right now because we're not eligible.

I'm looking for the prestige.

Yes. We're moving along as quickly as we can. Thank you. Absolutely.

OK. You want to go on?

Yep. I'm just going back to the, if I may, just going back to the compost issue that was raised a moment ago. I just want to point out that the city of Boston provides free compost collection. and provides an indoor bin for collecting compost inside and then an outdoor bin for dumping all the inside, all the collected compost into and that gets picked up once a week.

I've been an advocate for doing that in Newton. And I'm wondering, Is Boston saving a lot of money in trash collection because all the heavy stuff is going into composting? Do you happen to know that?

I don't know the answer to that.

I would love to know that. And if also doing it and they're doing the same thing, it would be impetus because I think our contract is coming due.

For Wheelabrator from the trash incinerator it is. And so I would need to know that problem. Yeah. Okay.

Again, this is the kind of question I can testify that I carry it out in the backyard myself, and it doesn't cost the city anything.

It might cost me $100 a year.

So, Resilience, this is an important new one. I think, not new, but important to mention in this. So, who's gonna carry this one to you? Ms. Weiss, are you gonna do this?

Yeah, on Resilience, I'm going to take this one. So are we now on slide 17 on resilience? OK. So the city is, in fact, very deeply involved. in what we've been calling resilience and is often called adaptation efforts. CAP 2.0 does touch on these issues, but a number of other city plans are much more focused on them. And I'll run through what those plans are quickly and who's in charge of them. there's an open space and recreation plan that is and the planning Parks and Rec Department is in charge but both planning and parks and rec departments are in charge of that plan and next updated in 2030 the hazard mitigation plan and comprehensive Emergency Management Plan.

Both are now being updated and I think are nearly complete. And the fire chief is in charge of that one. are those two. Stormwater Infrastructure Improvement Plan, which is obviously crucial, and that's the Department of Public Works. Jonathan, I believe, presented on that and some of these other plans as well to public facilities just a few months ago. a phosphorus control plant, DPW is in charge of that one, and then a tree planting plan that's within the capital improvement plan and that's parks and rec specifically Mark Welch that's being updated every year. So there's a lot going on on the resilience and adaptation front.

Just it's not mainly within the purview of the sustainability team, although we We are touching on it certainly in this latest climate action plan.

So there's one that's sort of there, but not with that new contract that DPW just signed. to do a plan for our stormwater infrastructure really fits onto this slide.

Well, there are a number of issues sort of subsumed in the DPU. Sorry. The DPW activities on stormwater, including the stormwater ordinance, which is aimed at getting construction projects to retain stormwater and reduce any downstream impacts of phosphorus control plan. and which is an EPA, federal EPA requirement, stormwater infrastructure. improvements having to do with management of street sweeping, catch basin cleaning, and the like. and keeping the whole system functioning well during rain events. So there are a lot of pieces of all this. And I might mention here as well,

that one of the recommendations we got in feedback on CAP 2.0 was to establish a biodiversity commission. And we have instead indicated our intention to establish a biodiversity working Group, which will assess the health of the city's forested lands and open spaces and set targets. for preservation and restoration efforts on municipal lands, among other things. So there's a lot, as you can see, going on on the resilience and adaptation front. just not all within CAP 2.0 or even within the work of the sustainability team.

You covered a couple of those in a couple of slides further out. So carry on.

Okay, so I think we're moving now to slide 18. Is that right? Are you ready to go on to that?

Yep, you're good.

Okay, slide 18 refers to a new chapter that is a chapter that was not included in CAP 1.0 on what you can do. and it addresses buildings, transportation, consumption, and adaptation or resilience. The piece that always astonishes me. So was the piece we wrote on what you can do with respect to food consumption. and the fact that approximately one-third of the food produced in this country is actually wasted. So, although we have some recommendations with respect to, or at least provide some information on what kinds of foods, no surprise to any of us, I think,

are particularly, or especially an issue with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, just wasting less. Not going shopping when you're very hungry, for example. storing food appropriately, not always paying attention to the expire by dates. on all foods. It matters with respect to some foods. For example, infant formula, not with respect to other foods. So there are lots of ways to minimize food waste. And then we have a lot of other recommendations about Food consumption and about transportation and about buildings are, I would say, our most important buildings recommendation is to get a massive audit. Really crucial. There's no reason to be, if you're going to electrify your house, for example, to be oversizing the system, which you would be doing if you're not adequately insulated.

So again, you can you can read what's on this slide, but I think it's I'm really pleased to have this new chapter.

Just let the record show what I mentioned at the outset, that the vice chair is sure that the cookies that are not eaten tonight will go home and not be thrown away. So I just want you to know that.

Eat those cookies, please.

Can I just comment on one thing? This individual opportunity, I think, is really an important one. that I hope that you will... We can talk about that maybe more offline, but... I recall when we were talking about the override a number of years ago, people could go in and see what their particular tax would be. And if there were some way that the city, you could take your property and say, you know what are you spending on this amount for gas or oil or whatever you're spending if you were electrified maybe you would be spending less or you would be in other words just rule of thumb that might incentivize people to call up and say You should speak to the Energy Commission.

They're very interested. in providing data about individual homes with what they're spending on.

I've tried to get it figured out with my house, but unfortunately, it's so old and creaky, I have some difficulties. But never mind. That's a side. Councilor Danberg.

and the importance of insulating. This past weekend there were six of us in the house. We had set the house We went down for a couple of days unexpectedly and we had set the house at 60. It's all electric with heat pumps and the walls are nine inches thick. with six inches of regular wall plus three inches on the exterior. And we set the house at 60 with six people basically living in the house. It raised the temperature to 68 degrees. without raising the temperature of the heat pump.

So you're going to create a whole new form of envy.

It's amazing what the just the windows on the south. We don't have a lot of southern south windows. It's just the heat from the bodies of the people in the house that raise the temperature 8 degrees.

Oh.

That's impressive. OK. Any more comments on this page or questions?

I can wait to the end.

Yeah. Yeah. No, we're not quite. We're almost there.

OK. Next slide.

OK, I think we're going to slide 19, what we heard. Is that right? So we heard a lot. Actually, most of it extremely useful. There was a lot of thoughtful, very thoughtful feedback, which we appreciated. There was a lot of sentiment that we should have goals, metrics and specified actors for every strategy, which we did not. fully adopt, we partially adopted, not actors for every strategy. Assessment of CAP 1.0, we did address that, as you've seen. There were a number of recommendations for policy goals, some of which we adopted, some of which we did not. I'll run through some of them quickly. Berto for small buildings, we think we should get our legs under us on the Berto we have adopted.

That's a big enough task and learn what we can from that before we go further. Electric school buses, we agree. And as we've said in the draft, The school department is doing its own climate action plan, which we will support them on, and we will work with them on identifying Land for parking school buses. That's at the moment the chief obstacle. I mentioned already, one of the pieces of feedback was to establish a biodiversity commission. Instead, we committed to establishing a biodiversity working group. Then there were a number of other recommendations which would take city council action. Explore opportunities for reducing light pollution from commercial buildings, city provided composting we've talked about,

and pay-as-you-throw curbside trash program that, for example, supporting that with the much smaller blue trash barrel and the same size green recycling bin, I think might go some way in that regard. Also, on the exploring opportunities for reducing light pollution for commercial enterprises, I am rarely awake and driving around at midnight. But on the rare occasions when I am, astounded driving down, for example, oh, you know, down Needham Street, Highland Avenue, that whole stretch at the number of commercial buildings that are fully lighted. at midnight, and I'm sure throughout the night.

So I think there might, I understand that there are some security concerns, but I think if that's the concern, it's being over, addressed and I'd love to find a way to get to that but obviously that would take city council action. So I think I'll stop there. Caroline may want to add something.

You just pause and just Councilor Kalis has his hand raised. I just want to ask if you want to ask Ms. Weiss to comment first and then you ask your question or you want to ask your question now, Councilor Kalis?

You could go ahead, Ms. Weiss, and then I'll ask my question. Thank you.

Okay, I just want to make sure to close the loop. Okay, Councilor Kalish.

So Ms. Berwick, on the policy goals, you have six here. What are the next steps and how are you, are you evaluating them to see which ones Do you move forward with or are you waiting for council action? How do we actually get some of these explored and moving?

Sure. Well, yeah, it's very specific to the particular policy goal, right? For example, and there were others I picked, we picked. A subset, there are others, but just sticking with the ones we have here on the list. Berto, let's get some experience with Berto as it's been enacted. So that's just a question of getting experience. Electric school buses, as I mentioned, we need to find land to park. School buses and the city and the sustainability, the city, the school department and the city sustainability team have committed to working on that and we committed to that in the in CAP 2.0, Biodiversity Working Group I just touched on.

and then there are a number of items that would require city council actions, such as, as we mentioned, reducing light pollution from commercial enterprises at night, City, Free City, Provided Composting, Pay As You Throw, Curbside Trash Program.

Okay, so you're not docketing these. You want us to do this.

Well, at this point, I'm just flagging them. The Climate Act, we're just saying, all we're doing at the moment is saying these are things we have heard. and we certainly think some of them are worthy of consideration. Some would require city council action, some would not.

As I hear it, we're awaiting the plan itself, and then I think that will generate some docket items as I hear it. But there may be some things people want to anticipate. and move on sooner than that, that's certainly possible. But as I hear it, your efforts are going into putting the plan together and making it as user friendly as you can and then have people think about what you do next. so that leads to the question I'd be asking when do you expect that you'll be ready with this to come back to us so the updated draft should be ready within a few weeks designed and ready for sharing and for any further feedback and then we'll

work with the new mayor to bring it to council. So that could be January, but I'm not sure yet.

Okay, but Sue.

Yeah, we've gone through all the feedback and we're not losing sight of any of it either. Like some of these actions that Anne has mentioned that require further work with council or further I guess I can't speak for the future council necessarily, but I think

it would be an advantage to have you come back before the budget process certainly and have enough time to begin to think about what can be documented or what can be acted on before we get because the budget sort of consumes us as you know We'd be happy to be invited back.

We would be happy to be invited back.

I think I can't speak for the future council, but I think there's interest around the table among at least me and perhaps others. Let me go to people now who've been patient about asking questions until we got through the presentation. Is there anything you want to saying, oh, excuse me, just explain what does the QR code take you to? That's the draft?

Yeah, it takes you to the page that's called climate action plan where you can read both the first climate action plan for 2020 and 2025 and the draft that we released on October 23rd and where the link will be posted up to updated.

Thank you. Now, colleagues, questions you want to ask that you haven't asked?

Yes, thank you very much. So thank you so much for the presentation. It's really exciting to hear, you know, I knew we were always doing a good job. I know we have areas of improvement, and I love that we're still focused on this. There's a couple of things that I think are really big priorities and one of them is their resilience around flooding, stormwater management, utilizing our parks and open spaces. I'm also well aware that that would be above and beyond what the city has. So I'm wondering if we're looking at any potential funding sources, both private and from the state, if that would be available to do that. Flooding is on everybody's mind. and I'll just say I think if the city provides composting and we're actually talking about a pay-as-you-go program, that would put us towards a much closer zero waste goal.

And that would be critically important. They always call pay as you throw the third rail of politics. The idea, we've discussed this in the sustainability team working group about having a smaller blue card. And if you want a larger one, you would have to pay for it. Like Brookline has a similar model. You can start off easy like that. And it would be interesting to know what the cost would be to offer Black Earth Composting, similar to what the city of Boston does. And I believe the town of Watertown also does that. And it also gives you a good idea of how much food you waste. Yeah. And it's amazing how heavy that food waste is and now I've been participating in that for a few years. I cannot imagine putting food waste in my trash anymore. It just would be important to me to do it.

And also, I really like the idea that that's going to be composted as opposed to in Aerobic Digestion. That's important. That's reinvesting in our soils and, you know, many guys in carpet. So are a real priority.

Thank you. And I know you did mention funding sources for resilience and flooding. And I can't speak to all the funding sources that I'm sure really DPW has. But I will mention we're applying now, June 15, for the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness 2.0 process. which is essentially a two-year planning process for resilience with a $50,000 action grant that then makes us eligible for future action grants from the state to fund resilience-related projects and has funded resilience projects in the past for Parks and Rec.

I just bought an EV so you can add that to me.

I will because I don't think it's been updated since July, so glad we're taking up. I hope it's been treating you well.

Let me just add, I have a thought too that you talked initially about the federal government, with the federal government taking a role of actually discouraging a good deal of the alternative energies. Still, my understanding is the economics still favor them. in many cases that solar and EVs and all of these things still make sense. But their sales have gone down because the subsidies have gone away. But I think that... Again, this is part of the public education, but as part of the plan, the education can be that even if there is not a tax subsidy, there are still things you can do that will benefit you and all of that, because I think the sort of public commentary has been well these were only happening because there were subsidies and when the subsidies went away you know the value of them disappeared and I don't think that's what I understand to be the case but I think

It's not maybe everybody around this table knows that, but I'm not sure that's generally available perception.

No, that's absolutely right. The federal subsidies have gone away, of course, but there are still state subsidies. But apart from that, just as you are saying, There are economic reasons without subsidies for favoring solar and wind, for example, as compared to fossil fuel generation. But I wanna be honest about the cost of electrification. People cannot expect even with the new heat pump rates to save money on the operational costs of electrifying. So I think we need to be honest with people about that. So we can't be sending the message, well, you will save money. If you go to heat pump heating and then people come back and won't trust anything we tell them. So we need to be honest in that regard.

I think what you're really saying is how much are you spending on gas Well, yes.

So if you're heating with electric resistance heat or with fuel oil, you will save money. going to a heat pump. Your energy costs will, well, your building energy costs will decrease. If you are currently heating with natural gas, Converting to a heat pump system will not save you money. It is the right thing to do. There are still state subsidies for initial capital expenses. But it won't, it's not going to save you money if you're heating with natural gas.

Again, this is the kind of information that people need to understand where they can make those trade-offs.

Yeah, and we're doing a frequently, so we discovered when we put out some information on the new Newton power choice prices and the new state heat pump rate that there was a lot of confusion and a lot of questions that even addressing those issues didn't answer so We're hoping to do a comprehensive, or not we're hoping to, we will do a comprehensive set of frequently asked questions and answers. related to energy use and costs.

One other thing, I think the light pollution ideas wonderful one it seems crazy to have people just shining lights not only into the sky where they You can't see the stars anymore, but to waste that. Now, again, how you make the conversions is another story.

But, Counselor Elbert? You know, living where I do, I can see over to City Hall and the War Memorial and the Aldermanic Chamber, the lights are on so much in the night and in the early morning. So you might want to check out why that is. Why don't they turn off those lights? I don't know. We should look into that. Absolutely. Please do. North High School.

Yeah. Well, that's a good point. I mean, the city itself could be a pathfinder on this. I mean, I figured out finally how to make my Christmas tree lights go out. That was a big victory. Other comments? Anybody?

I do think going forward the two committees really should together or in some way you know move forward together. It seems as if it's appropriate for us to, in terms of these policy goals, to try and quickly coordinate um and then you know I just sort of feel that we don't have a context we have to understand how this is impacting build in the city you know in terms of the electric creation requirements and I'm just sort of because we're hearing that you know in the sense of what's coming out and what's what's being reported back from ISD so I just don't want it to be the kind of thing where you know we have to find the balance and we have to sort of work through and but understand the impacts

So I won't get into all of the different I had comments. I assumed that this was the highlights. And it's been a little bit since I read. I can't remember if everything's in it. I just want to point out two things, if I may. One is, even in the highlights, making justice neighborhoods a priority in resilience. and the other is on the website if you could put on and keep current next steps. So as soon as the new draft is ready, or, you know, to say we're working on a new draft, it's ready. We're planning to go to city council sometime January or February would be very helpful for those like me who are tracking. And I'll add, well, actually one other, two other things.

Can we find out what the environmental costs Recycling and Trashes because my suspicion is weekly recycling is unnecessary given most of that stuff is clean and that there's a cost to stop and pick up very lightly loaded barrels. And then on the parking lot lighting, I think there may be insurance concerns. So for instance, I go by Whole Foods and its lights are on well after closing. I suspect they may be there for insurance concerns, which doesn't mean it can't be solved, but it is an unintended consequence of something else.

Okay, any other questions? Thank you, Ms. Berwick, and thank you, Ms. Weiss, and thank you, Mr. Knightman, as well. Not here, but it is. Obviously, I could be at work. And we appreciate that. So this item, I think, will return in the future, but in a different form. So I'd entertain a motion on both, no action necessary, just so that we clarify where we're at.

No action necessary on both of them.

OK, thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? OK, the ayes have it. Well, let me go to just to note that there is a memo 302 24 aligning zoning proposed using new development. It's an extensive presentation. And Ms. Tara, we promised not to ask you to discuss it, but we did ask you to present it. So I don't know exactly how you can walk that fine line between telling us what's there without telling us what's there.

I am going to defer to Mr. LaValle on this one to put this.

Do you want to come to the table where you can hear a little better?

I'm happy to.

So, discuss but don't present. Don't present but don't discuss. Don't present but don't discuss. Okay. Well, I think a couple of things that I would highlight for a bit now. I would say we kind of did some analysis of the issue here again is that you have um residential development occurring in

If you look at the maps of where these areas are, these are in typically parts of the city that were developed earlier on where you had are all next to each other.

and the largest and you ended up going out walking around the neighborhood of Council Oliver and Councilor Leary and you saw kind of particularly along Adams Street, but it's on Watertown Street, it's on California Street, predominantly in Donantum. You saw the new development that was occurring that are there.

And we tried to identify, OK, where does this make sense and where does it What we have inevitably presented to all of you was two options to explore. One in the short term is that

is that we want to see that commercial development makes sense there. If it were to be fully commercial, then so be it. to develop residential, then we can modify the rules and regulations, the setbacks, the heights, et cetera, to something different so that it would better guide such development if and when it were to occur.

Super. That's a very nice presentation.

Commentary.

Are we discussing this?

Well, we can talk today a little bit, sure. I don't want to, because we're going to not discuss it in terms of action tonight. It's just a little bit like the Climate Act, and we're going to come back to it, I think. This is sort of a question.

Recently, the Land Use Committee had before it a form of cleaners in Newton And it's been empty for a long, long time. And it came to the council many years ago to become housing and they turned it down. and apply again for housing and they turned it down because they'd rather have commercial but the place is sitting vacant for commercial so the question I guess is What can we do to make it more commercial friendly? If we really want that site to be commercial, what do we do to make it commercial friendly? And if there is anything. So I don't expect you to have the answer to that, but I think that's a question that needs to be answered.

and this in particular is a is a pretty small site and it might make sense that residential might make sense. I think you can take these in their case by case basis. I think what's happening

Now that I think about it, it seems that that came to the council once before when we were doing marijuana shops and they wanted to put a marijuana shop there and they said there wasn't enough parking so they turned that down too.

I think that these are all questions that are very interesting and need to be dealt with. One of the things that I think governs what people build in any given era is what the economic conditions are and what can get financed because we will all remember the Chesa Hill, the Wegmans Plaza that was supposed to, it was designed with two 19-story towers or Paul Towers, I think there were about 19 stories. And they never got built because that was in 08, 09, 07, 08, 09 when the housing crashed.

and when the design after it goes through city process, when they go to put it out to the banking and investment community, they're not going to get any takers or the rate of return, investment rate of return that would be required in order to cover the risk of building something at a time when The absorption of that product isn't happening is so high as to make the project unfeasible, financially unfeasible. And that's a lot of what's going on, for example, at Riverside. and also at Northland had to do away with the commercial portion of it because they

They knew that they would have a lot of difficulty going out to the investment world and getting the financing in place at a percentage that you can build anything if you don't care how much what your interest rates are. somebody will give you the money to do it, but that doesn't mean that it will be at least. And so I would like to hear some discussion in the ongoing discussion in the future about Newton not wanting to lose its commercial base and what can be done in order to either encourage or build whatever I think local, as you say, if you've got enough

residents, residential to support local businesses, then that type of commercial probably would work. The office space after COVID, who knows whether we'll ever absorb the one-third of the commercial buildings that are now empty. and that's the main reason why they're not being built because they can't be leased.

Yeah, just to follow up on Councilor Danberg, the economics of building in commercial spaces, I think it's important that we understand that. And speaking as a member of the land community, the land use committee. There is a strong feeling among that committee, and I'm sure it's most of the city council too, to preserve our commercial spaces. And I think that is important. But I think we need to have some criteria about that using 1100-1102 Bacon Street as an example because it's very recent and it's being withdrawn without prejudice tomorrow night at the land use meeting. They came before us twice. and we had asked them to come back for other kind of modifications but I was a little frustrated because the reason why it was it wasn't going to go anywhere in land use was exactly because There was concern about building residential and commercial space.

And I understand that the problem, this was a very limited space. There were some economic reasons why it wasn't viable. So to have some criteria about that. Otherwise, we should just tell people if they have a commercial property, zoned commercial, a BU, and they want to do residential, don't come to the Land Use Committee because it's going to be denied. unless we have some criteria about that. We don't want to waste anybody's time.

Yeah, interesting. I mean, this is a unique site in that, you know, it's interesting. We're not talking about the VCOD update. There was another memo associated with that. This was an area that was originally included as part of the which is small and difficult that are moving forward in some way, shape or form. And I think the dimensions and the allowance within that type of zoning framework could have produced a pathway for a property like this. Of course, you know, it's a small site and it'd still be difficult, but it'd be interesting

Oliver, then we go to Councilor Jones.

Great, thank you. It's been a while. I mean, where we started or the genesis of this was really the off, right, the behind Adams Street kind of completely residential areas of and Nonantum that still had lots that were zoned business. And again, the impetus here was our famous 20 Clinton, where in part, The FAR associated with that lot that was held over from the commercial side was, I want to say it was 1.2-ish. Massive all these structures on that property led to just, I think, well, just drive down Flint Street and you'll see what I mean.

So I do think that that is really important not to get lost in the greater dialogue because I think everything you're saying is correct. We have to figure out how to protect the commercial that we have in a smart way that allows for things to actually be built there that people can make money on so that they will build it. Completely agree. But I don't want to lose sight of the I'm not going to go into great detail per chair's wish, I'll leave it there, but that's kind of

Councilor Goetz, and then let's finish up.

Just in, while you were speaking, I looked this up, you know, in terms of looking at the map for the BCOD, and it was actually proposed to be BC2. But it was considered a priority. So this is where we have to find the place where we can maintain a certain amount of commercial, but then possibly a lot more residential. because this is actually one of those areas that actually lives in that world where, like Adams Street, it can support commercial and there is viability because there's quite a bit of housing. Just already new housing in the area. So I really do think it's important to think about that mixed use.

I'll be quick follow up with Councilor Oliver what he said. We came to this mainly for residential areas with commercial lots. What's happening in Four Corners, that could happen on any BU lot. um so that's a i think kind of a separate thing i mean you should have some standards there but that could happen everywhere in the city but what we wanted to address is is this other aspect and

that in the memo presentation provided,

I'm just curious, if that was to be part of the DCOD, would it make sense to add it in, to go back and add it in?

But it seems like that the developer doesn't want to do it. They want to do all residential. And as VCOD, and it's a primary street, Yeah, it has to have commercial on the first floor.

So my, again, I haven't been a part of these conversations, but my sense is that and so forth. So I think that that mentality or that is only 5,000 square feet could be viable, but I don't know that.

and a slightly different framework to think about, which is productivity in the neighborhood. And the 1102, is it Beacon Street? Seems to be a perfect example, right? Yes, it's great that we preserve commercial space, are a couple of buildings that are woefully underused and so It's almost like concentrating the commercial would be more productive from a revenue perspective than actually having commercial space the entire way. And I just want to offer that as a possible alternative framework for looking at a property like this where possibly adding homes there, net, would have better, greater benefits than the vacant commercial

So we got a lot of homework. You're still with us next term. And we have a conversation with the landings committee, I'm sure, as well. Thank you for a non-presentation presentation. Okay, I'd entertain a motion to any of that item, but again, this I suspect will come back. Oh, I promise you.

Yeah. So, yeah. Motion to NAN 302.24. Okay.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Abstentions? Okay. And then there are a whole string of items that I'm just going to move it in, if you permit me as the chair, so that we can just disposed of them properly. I'm just going to read the docket items. But they're in the agenda. 26. I'm sorry.

I'm going to take the second one, the VCOD before we go through all the NANs.

Oh, sure.

Where is it in order? I thought it was the next thing.

So let me read these 26-25. This is relating to the multi-resident zone 80-25. Commercial Office Space, 29524, Parking and Village Centers. We've done some discussion on a lot of these issues anyway. 2725, two family detached, 25824. This is manufacturing districts in Donanum, 8524. This is preservation of existing homes, 4124. amend setbacks to preserve existing buildings. 4324 quarterly updates on the VC overlay district. So we move NAN on all those items, recognizing that part of the work of the period of time between this committee and the new New Council is just to spend a little time with Ms. Holman and the Vice Chair.

to try and make sure that we don't lose these items from the possibility of people reviving them because they just don't remember that they're there. I mean, they may not want to do it. Okay, all those in favor say aye.

I think that to speak to Councilor Wright, it's the 43-24th, I'd like to read the packet to discuss the item. I'd like to discuss it.

Okay, read it before we vote. Unless I say discussion on the vote, all right? All right, Mr. LaBelle, you have, again, an economic opportunity, so to speak.

enhance development rights. And I think

45, we're going.

I think that's probably the main takeaway. I know through the historic commission that when properly calibrated, and down the pipeline is just a bit further behind. And I think those larger kind of core village center projects that are holding those back.

4749 Chase Street and Newt Center is wrapping up. I think if you go down that street, those two buildings

So a couple of questions. So actually the church was not part of BCLD because the lot was too big. And so they subdivided it. And then that is now part of BCLD. I don't think it was.

Well, it was also landmark, so that helped.

Yes, it was always in the VCOD. Yes, it was always part. I thought it was over 30,000. It was, but those lots were still in VCOD. They weren't counted. Okay. Because they weren't by right.

Okay. So I was just wondering, so units that are permitting the Pipeline is 106. How many roughly is MRT of that 106? 50 units, 75?

I would imagine it's in the 20s.

106. 106. Well, it's permitting pipeline.

Yeah, so take out about 35 is the church.

Do you know if those are percentage of those roughly are actually going to rentals versus condos?

We don't know. There's no way that we can figure that out later? Yeah, sure. but it's something we can track.

Yeah, I would like to track it because that's something we want to do because those are smaller, more attainable. and if it's going all rentals because we have lots of rentals per se what else could we do to incentivize condos yeah this echoes an inclusionary building conversation yeah yes it does yeah

Okay, any other questions or comments?

Just real quick. I'm assuming that, and I would have butchered the address, but Washington Street is not in here. People are calling it the

It's not in there because it's not going through any, but yeah. But I guess I would highlight that they are looking to explore, you know, 100% affordable. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Can we go over that last slide for cleanup? And I agree with some of these, but I need to understand what you're saying on that. So like the first one,

Tell us what slide you're talking about.

Last one, seven.

Maybe bring it up. If he can pull it up, I think we should. I can see it because I've got it.

Page seven. Sure.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

So allow more flexibility for unit placement in adaptive reuse. I think we require 25 feet 20, 20 feet distance between buildings. And then are you looking at making that smaller or what?

I mean, I think that's a possibility. What it's really referring to is and I think thinking about it more about units on a site is a better way to think about it. Particularly, for example, I think allowing that sort of flexibility could go a long way into again further helping preserve while adding.

And the second one? are There are smaller sites, tight sites that if you could have parking in different locations, it would make a lot of times for a better layout.

I think 6 to 10 floral that's going in the Newton Highlands, which I think is going to be a really great project. That's because of the parking setbacks.

had to be closer to the front of the building, not in front because that wouldn't have been allowed for zoning, but

and I agree on number three. I'm thinking one specifically allowed fully commercial too.

Yeah, that's a really easy one. That's just deleting one line. So I would recommend documenting that.

and then modifying the minimum distance between buildings so do you want to see it smaller or be a percentage of the size of the lot or I wouldn't I don't know if I would say a specific

If we want to allow preservation to occur on smaller lots with smaller buildings, we need to allow things to get a little bit tighter. I don't think developers want, there's a sweet spot where they need to sell these things at the end of the day. But I think exploring the 20 foot where we are now, I think exploring that a little bit more, we might say, hey, this might unlock versus where they are now.

And one quick question. So if we make any of these changes, especially like allow fully commercial, which like you said, it's just one line, It has to go to the state and they have to review it and get permission from it or what?

No, it shouldn't. So it's about the zoning for Allowing fully commercial doesn't supersede or change the allowance of housing. to prevent the housing option within the zoning. And that would be a different story with everything else.

But would you need to submit and actually ask for them?

I think technically we're supposed to send them any changes that happen all of these I don't see these affecting the calculation at all they're generally you know a little bit more permissive or the commercial would be Totally irrelevant, as long as you didn't require a fully commercial.

Can you guys write up? I mean, you clearly know what needs to be modified. Can you just write up the docket language?

Yeah. Before we get to the docket, why don't we, like,

I think that you've given us some things that are worth thinking about next time and you've got to know more about it. But I'd rather not get an extended discussion tonight, but I think you've given us some things to chew on. But my expectation was that We will have an update on the VCOD as part of the new terms menu of items that the committee will take up. Now, what comes out of that and the docket item may be, you know, may emerge from that discussion, but I don't, I wouldn't pre-test that.

Some of us might want to docket something January 1st and it'd be nice to have some language. That's all I'm asking for.

You can ask for anything you want. I'm just not expecting anything to get done between now and January 1st.

I wouldn't think so.

I mean, I appreciate what they've done, but we're losing a director and we're losing this car.

It might be nice that you could then drop into your thoughts, you know, and just design them.

Zach is fully up to speed.

Oh, I know, but you guys have been discussing.

Oh, yeah, we've been discussing. We've been tracking. Zach's been tracking. things as they come up as we're seeing it through the process. So any of my thoughts have already been incorporated there.

But we have a motion on the floor. Any more discussion? I mean, it doesn't mean, Councilor Albright, you can't get the target items. I don't mean to minimize that. I just wasn't expecting that to emerge as a . Our time is, well, we're trying to figure out how the committee manages this time, but I'm not sure who it's been, and we don't know what I'll be in charge of, so we'll see. Question, any other questions? All right, all those in favor, any in? Say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? The ayes have it. All right. Now, we have one other item that's Not formally before us, but we are joined tonight by Ms. Kyra. We're very grateful that she is here. And Mr. LaMelo, I hope you stick around. I want to say how much we've appreciated your Lee earlier, I think he's no longer with us.

We've got other members of the council here line as well as a member of the committee, Councilor Kalis. I want to say how much I've appreciated the contribution that Not only the staff, but all of the members of the committee and those who've attended from time to time who are not on the committee to do the work we've done. We've really, I think, through the committee, the council has have done a fair amount of work in the last two years. And what Councilor Alderman and I have is a citation to read for Ms. Kyra. honor her and also the planning director, but he is not here.

He is sick.

He is sick. Oh, he didn't even get cookies. This is why we have to do something to save some from someone on the stage. So the vice chair and I work together to produce this City Council Accommodation to you and there's a parallel version for him but you know with slight modifications for obvious reasons but the content is the same and so what I I thought that the Vice Chair and I would do this jointly because we've signed it on behalf of the committee. I hope that's all right, but we couldn't convene all of you in advance. So this is City of Newton City Council Accommodation honoring Jen Cairo. for her outstanding accomplishments during her time as Deputy Director of Planning and Development.

John Carter began serving as the Deputy Director of Planning and Development for the City of Newton in 2019 and

whereas Ms. Kyra has been a principal advisor to the 2024-25 Newton City Council Zoning and Planning Committee and

Ms. Kyra oversaw some of the following changes to Newton's zoning ordinances during the 2024-25 term.

Updates to the special permit zone change and site plan review fee.

Requiring special permit review for all retaining walls over four feet.

Requiring building height is measured from original grade instead of finished grade.

incorporation of the fast food establishment use into the restaurant use, alone for sure, maker spaces, and or co-working, and defining place of amusement use. Place of amusement use.

Blood-blading ordinance updates.

Revisions of the requirements for accessory or ADUs or accessory dwelling units, including changes required by the new state law.

preventing large homes from building from side setback to side setback through the creation of maximum residential facade build out ratio. Fantastic work.

Removing parking minimums for commercial uses in commercial centers.

allowing small changes to existing homes to be made by Wright, and the creation of a new adult aid care use, updating the inclusionary zoning ordinance, Right? Not bad for two years.

So now it says applause here. Now therefore it'd be no. You wanted to read that part. but in recognition of Ms. Kyra's final meeting with the committee this term, the members of the Zoning and Planning Commission wish to extend heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for Ms. Kyra's service. We thank Ms. Kyra for her dedication and wish her continued success and all of her future endeavors.

This is a commendation of this eighth day of December on behalf of the Zoning and Planning Committee of the Newton City Council by Chair Arnold Baker and Vice Chair John Oliver.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for this. And just want to say this is clearly not all me. So much of this is Zach and Nora and the rest of the team.

So I do not want to take... We appreciate them and we'll credit them. They are certainly unadonated co-conspirators.

I'm lucky to work with all of you.

All right, three, two, smile. Thank you so much.

And we have a parallel resolution assigned for Barney. And I'm sorry you can't be here, but would you be the service proposal? all right thank you for this but thank you for I mean all of the formalities aside we're grateful to you for your time and service to us and We don't always agree with you.

I don't want you to misunderstand me.

I learned a lot. I'm really proud of the work that we've done.

Well, we've enjoyed working with you and good luck in your new role, but you've left a good team behind, and Laura and Zach, and we will certainly carry on with them, but thank you very much for Thank you very much. I'll accept the motion to adjourn versus Councilor Fritzman when I need it.

All right.

Motion to adjourn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you.