The December 21 Boston Globe editorial (Fewer Meetings, More Housing) criticized Newton for taking 18 years to approve the plan for Riverside. This shows how little the Globe understands Newton’s Riverside development.
The real story is how quickly Newton moved to review and approve the latest plan for Riverside. The developer that first obtained the lease from MassDOT and secured Newton’s approval of its plan in 2013, BH Normandy, no longer exists as a company. The current developer, Mark Development, has filed and refiled its plans in response to changing market conditions. The required documents for the current plan were filed in July, 2025. Significant modifications were made as late as November and Newton’s City Council approved the project in December.
The other part of the story is the need to fix our public transit system — funded and operated entirely by the state. Riverside was intended to be a multi-modal transit hub serving Metro-West commuters. It’s by far the largest working rail yard where Green Line trains are stored, maintained, and repaired. The Green Line Transformation will bring trains twice as long as the current model (a wonderful development, by the way), raising the question whether the current rail yard will need to be expanded. Further, the MBTA agreed to reduce the number of parking spaces exclusively available to commuters from 960 to just 650. When commuter demand exceeds that available parking, the unproven plan is to use the MBTA Woodland station garage. Yet the City Council approved it in record time, with only two dissenting votes.
The Globe’s call for quicker approval of housing developments misses a key point: The housing crisis is directly linked to the disgraceful state of our public transit system – not to the time it takes for Newton or any community to approve major residential developments.
Randall Block
Ward 4 Councilor
Newton Lower Falls
