In a July 22 meeting of the City Council’s Public Facilities Committee, Councilors discussed the future of the City’s long-standing “two-foot” rule for gas pipe replacement — a minor technicality that some argue could have major implications for the future of climate planning in Newton.
Before beginning construction or maintenance work in Massachusetts, utility companies must obtain a Street Opening Permit — and, sometimes, a Grant of Location — from the local Department of Public Works (DPW) or City Council. Street Opening Permits are required for any location where a utility company plans to dig on streets or sidewalks; in Newton, they are issued by the DPW. Grants of Location are required only for major projects on a public way; in Newton, they are issued by the City Council and often include a public hearing process.
However, Newton allows for an exception to the Grant of Location requirement: the de minimis, or “minor deviation,” rule. If a utility company plans to replace a gas pipe within two feet of an existing gas main, it need not apply for a Grant of Location, and it is thereby exempt from the public hearing process and City Council review. Because the rule applies to gas system work within two feet of existing infrastructure, it has been dubbed the “two-foot” rule.
Unknown origins
At the July 22 meeting, Commissioner of Public Works Shawna Sullivan said that while Newton’s two-foot rule has been in place for several decades, it is not found anywhere in Massachusetts General Law or in local ordinances.
In a July 17 memo to the Committee, Senior Assistant City Solicitor Andrew Lee wrote that it is “wholly within the City Council’s authority to modify or remove the two-foot rule in the City of Newton.” He also wrote that while there are no Massachusetts laws or regulations governing de minimis exceptions for gas infrastructure replacement, “many communities in Massachusetts have adopted a de minimis standard that [allows] administrative approvals of street openings if the new gas infrastructure is within a stated proximity of existing gas infrastructure.”
Making a change
Ward 1 City Councilor and candidate for State Representative Alison Leary, who initiated the July 22 discussion, said at the meeting that she wanted to take a closer look at the two-foot rule in light of her work with climate advocates. She said that she had been thinking about plans to meet the City’s climate goals, which include moving away from fossil fuels.
Councilor Leary explained that in 2014, the Massachusetts State Legislature introduced an initiative that it called the Gas System Enhancement Program (GSEP), which was intended to speed up the repair of old, leak-prone gas pipes. The program incentivizes utility companies to replace gas infrastructure by allowing the companies to charge ratepayers faster for costs associated with pipe replacement.
Utility companies — including National Grid, which services Newton’s gas system — have argued that GSEP makes it easier for them to ensure that gas infrastructure is operating safely and pipes are not leaking, which protects customers and prevents unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. However, GSEP’s critics argue that the program encourages utility companies to replace gas pipes even when the work is unnecessary.
Councilor Leary said that if the Council were to eliminate the two-foot rule, gas system work that had previously been exempt from Council oversight would have to come under the scrutiny of the Public Facilities Committee. Councilors could benefit from taking a closer look at the projects that National Grid undertakes, she suggested.
“What we’re basically asking here is for more clarity and more opportunity to work with the utilities a little more closely. And at this point, this part really only says, ‘look, we want all the grants that we had as Grants of Location — we want all the gas work done in the city — to come before the Public Facilities Committee,’” she said.
Climate activist and Newton resident Peter Barrer, who is a member of the Newton Conservators board of directors and the climate group 350 Mass, has been investigating the two-foot rule for years. In his opinion, the rule makes long-term climate planning more of a challenge.
“[The two-foot rule] has been an obstacle for the advocates who want to transition off gas to electric, where the two-foot rule is allowing the gas company to replace pipes that need to be retired without review by the City Council,” he said. “Getting rid of the two-foot rule will enable public discussion about the value of replacing the pipes.”
By comparing Grant of Location records with National Grid’s gas replacement records, Barrer compiled a list of 25 Newton streets that he says National Grid opened without a Grant of Location in 2025 — presumably, he said, under the two-foot rule.
“In 2025, National Grid installed 30,200 feet of replacement plastic pipe in Newton streets.
Only 24% was approved by City Council Grant of Location (GOL) decision as required by state law,” Barrer wrote in a memo to the Public Facilities Committee. “The remaining 23,000 feet was installed without such approval. Although some portion was installed for emergency safety purposes, most was installed by a National Grid subcontractor in a systematic planned process.”
At the July 22 meeting, Commissioner Sullivan questioned whether Barrer’s data included service line maintenance, which is separate and apart from the gas main maintenance that the two-foot rule targets. Gas mains distribute gas throughout the city, while service lines connect gas mains to buildings. Service line maintenance requires a street opening, Commissioner Sullivan said, but it does not require a Grant of Location — so if Barrer’s data included service lines, his conclusions would overestimate how much gas system work is being done under the two-foot rule.
However, in an email to Commissioner Sullivan obtained by Fig City News, Barrer said that his data included only gas mains and not service lines, a conclusion that he backed up with analysis of National Grid records. (Fig City News will update this article upon receiving comment from Commissioner Sullivan, which was not received by publication time.)
City Councilor Susan Albright (Ward 2), a current member and former chair of the Public Facilities Committee, told Fig City News that while she has no problem with eliminating the two-foot rule, she does not believe that doing so would meaningfully impact Newton’s long-term climate planning efforts. The City Council, she said, does not have the ability to stop National Grid from doing gas replacement work. (That regulatory power lies with the state’s Department of Public Utilities.)
“I think it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. We could see the list [of National Grid projects] without having it come to the Council,” she said. “But it’s fine, have it come to the City Council and we’ll look at it, understand it, know where it is … I have no objection to getting rid of the two-foot rule, but I don’t think it’s going to make much difference.”
In a statement to Fig City News, National Grid spokesperson Brian Noyes said that eliminating the two-foot rule could cause needless delays in the utility company’s efforts to provide high-quality service to its customers.
“National Grid’s top priority is delivering safe, reliable, and affordable energy service to our customers. We value our longstanding and productive relationship with the City of Newton and appreciate our ongoing collaboration to maintain and improve the infrastructure that serves residents and businesses throughout the community,” he said. “The current process allows utilities and municipalities to work together on identifying and replacing aging and leak-prone infrastructure within an established regulatory framework, and additional layers of review will unnecessarily delay projects needed to maintain safe and reliable service, while also increasing costs that are ultimately borne by customers.”
The Committee did not take any action on the two-foot rule during its July 22 meeting, and councilors did not give any indication that the rule might go away anytime soon. But as discussions regarding long-term climate planning in Newton continue, it is possible that the City Council could revisit this long-standing practice.
Theo Younkin is a 2026 graduate of Newton South High School, former co-Editor-in-Chief of the NSHS Lion’s Roar, and a Fig City News student intern.