Sources:

• The Environmental Notification Form (ENF), filed on April 30, 2010 with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (MEPA)
• The Traffic Impact and Access Study by the developer, April, 2010
• Materials provided by the developer at the June 9, 2011 community meeting

Developer:

BH Normandy Riverside LLC, John Hancock Tower 200 Clarendon St, Boston, MA 02116

Development Site:

25.3 acres at the Riverside T Station on Grove St., Newton. (Includes a 22.6-acre MBTA parcel under an 85-year lease and 2.7-acre BH Normandy parcel, currently part of the 190 room Indigo Hotel property.)

Project Summary:

1,509,600** square feet of mixed-use development, with the tallest building (currently proposed) at 10 stories.  The 10-story building (B) is at the back of the site.  All other buildings will be lower than the Hotel Indigo.

The current proposal includes:

• 295 Housing units (348,400 square feet)
        192 one-bedroom units;
         89 two-bedroom units;
         14 three-bedroom units

• 426,400 square feet of office space
• 20,800 square feet of retail space
• 2,380 parking spaces (714,000 square feet)-
         including 1,040 space parking structure for mass transit parking,
         replacing 960 existing surface spaces

** The developer uses a figure of 795,600 square feet for the project size, but this number does not include any of the parking structures. Industry estimates call for 300-400 square feet per parking space, with the per space requirement dropping as the size of the structure increases. We have used the lowest estimate here- 300 sq. ft. per space to arrive at 714,000 sq. ft. for parking.

Traffic Impact and Proposed Mitigation

This project is expected to generate an additional 682 AM Peak Hour and 750 PM Peak Hour vehicle trips per day. 

Proposed traffic mitigation measures include-

• widening Grove St, a Newton Scenic Roadway, in the area of the project, from two lanes to four lanes;
• adding two, two-lane roundabouts (small rotaries designed to slow traffic), one in Lower Falls near the existing ramps for Rt. 128 southbound, and one near the existing ramps for Rt. 128 northbound;
• locating the main access to/from the site to the service road along the northbound Rt. 128 on-ramp.  That road would be still be reached from Grove St. via the proposed roundabout to be located near the existing northbound 128 ramps.
• signage would direct traffic to the service road and internal traffic configuration plans would also encourage use of the service road entrance rather than the Grove St. entrance.

 

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COMMUNITY MEETING

A community meeting was held Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 7:00 pm at the Williams School Auditorium.
The development team presented the latest plans for Riverside Station. 
Roughly 200 people attended.
 
The full presentation.
The traffic handout.
The site plan.

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