Sorry to have been away from the blog for a little while, but the events of the campaign have kept me away from the keyboard for a while. However, a story in the Tab yesterday caught my eye – The one where there’s residential development proposed for the Wells Ave commercial park.
The City needs more affordable housing. It needs more workforce housing. We need ways to maintain an economically diverse community.
But, this isn’t the way to do it.
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Wells Avenue is one of the few areas where we can encourage appropriate commercial office growth with a minimum adverse impact on the remainder of the City. Right now, residential properties pay roughly 90% of the property tax base here in Newton – this reflect a significant shift in tax base over the decades, and it means that a great and growing component of our investitures and operations for infrastructure, schools, fire, services, etc are carried by the residential taxpayer.
It’s important to note that – like many other Cities - we have a split tax rate in Newton. The property tax rate for commercial properties is higher than that for residential properties (currently $21.93 per thousand of valuation as opposed to $11.49 for residential). Not only does a shift of commercial property to residential use mean that we lose the ability to maintain our commercial use, but it also means that we lose tax base for a comparably developed commercial development.
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The Wells Ave. park is directly adjacent to the New England Industrial Park in Needham and could very well be part of the N2 innovation corridor envisioned by Newton and Needham. Additionally, the new Kendrick Ave ramp onto Rt 128 will provide nearby regional access to the park (instead of generating considerable residential traffic with a variety of local and regional destinations).
Instead of having a residential development just happen, why not instead ensure that this park fulfills its full and originally intended purpose of being an employment and investment center for the City. Based on my own analysis of the market, we have an excellent opportunity to attract life sciences, information technology, specialized (read as low-impact) assembly and manufacturing, regional headquarters and similar uses.
As we all know, we are a mature and built out community. Each development we see from this point is a tradeoff of opportunities. I see a residential development at Wells Ave to be a poor bargain for the City.
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
