Newton Committee Votes 4-3 to Recommend Selling West Newton Parking Spaces for $276,000

NEWTON -- February 27, 2025, Newton committee backs $276,000 sale of contested West Newton parking spaces in 4-3 vote. The Real Property Reuse Committee voted Thursday to recommend that the city sell its 69 percent share of eight parking spaces at 25 Chestnut Street, setting a minimum sale price of $276,000 based on a city assessor valuation of $50,000 per space. Councilor Leonard Gentile, who made the motion, said the sale would resolve a decades-old split-ownership arrangement under which the city and the private owner of 1 Chestnut Street each hold portions of the same spaces. Councilors Allan Lucas, Maria Greenstein Gets, and David Oliver dissented, each preferring a lease and citing broader parking scarcity in West Newton Square. The prospective tenant is Hilliard's Chocolates, a third-generation Newton-rooted family business that has been trying to open a retail shop at 1 Chestnut Street in time for the 2025 holiday season. The recommendation goes next to the full City Council, and any approved transaction must still go through a public procurement process under Chapter 30B.