This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Village Character

While I have a few village characters in mind (many of them residing in the City’s 14th Village), most of us think of village character as meaning the experience we encounter when walking through the City’s streets and through our residential neighborhoods.  It’s a topic that came up at last Thursday’s debates, and one that will continue to come up as we discuss development around the City, and as we revise our zoning and land use ordinances.

Unfortunately a lot of the development conflicts we see right now are grounded in a zoning ordinance that no longer fits the ideals of what we would like to see happen in our city.  The current zoning ordinance, which was written many decades ago and which has changed incrementally and piecemeal since that time, is now convoluted and self-contradictory.  The inaccurate nature of the ordinance leads to the arbitrary application (and sometime misapplication) of development concepts and results in development that we neither expect nor want.  In some cases it also expressly prohibits forms of development that we do want.

How problematic is the zoning ordinance? Well, this year the City retained a consultant to clarify the ordinance and make it more readable and user-friendly. Specifically, their charge was to make the ordinance readable and decipherable by the lay reader and average citizen.  This effort was intended to be the first step in a two-part zoning reform process.  Unfortunately, this clarification process was supposed to be done by this point.  However, they have experienced delays due to the fact that the intent of certain parts of the ordinance are unclear due to these contradictions.

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As I noted above, the natural implication of lack of clarity within the zoning ordinances means that we get developments that we didn't expect, or that are completely incongruous with their surrounding context.  Likewise, the zoning ordinance often precludes village forms that are within the historic character of the neighborhoods. Let me put it a different way:  Under the current zoning, it is not for example possible to develop mixed-use village centers of the kind we have in Newtonville, Newton Centre, and Newton Highlands.  These kinds of patterns from the 19th and early 20th century resulted in walkable, transit-oriented centers (to use today’s words) that did not rely upon the car.

As we move into the next phase of zoning reform, we have an opportunity to set forth our priorities in such a way that will clearly delineate our vision for the villages and in our neighborhoods. We will have the opportunity to set the tone and tenor for a future that is congruous with our historic development patterns, but which also keeps future needs in mind (like preserving open space and embracing environmental priorities).  It's even possible that the new zoning ordinance won't look like the zoning ordinances of old but will instead be a form-based code (which sets forth building massing and some architectural details in addition to setbacks and use restrictions).  In this way, we can even clearly suggest the building forms appropriate for different sections and neighborhoods in the City.

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So many of our goals and priorities – preserving our heritage and open spaces, environmental sustainability, affordable and attainable housing resulting in economic diversity, commercially self-sustaining village centers, and even increased commercial tax base – can be materially assisted through the development of a cleaner, more modern, more predictable zoning ordinance.

Chris Steele is running for the city-wide office of Alderman at Large, Ward 5.  You can learn more at www.steele4newton.org or by contacting him at steelch@yahoo.com

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