Newton Council Panel Advances Field-Trial Appeal Rights in 5-2 Vote

NEWTON -- February 19, 2025, Newton's Public Safety and Transportation Committee voted 5-2 to advance an ordinance amendment allowing city councilors to appeal traffic field trials, a power that does not currently exist under the city's traffic council regulations. Councilor at Large Susan Lucas, the lead sponsor, said the proposal was prompted by a $300,000 ARPA-funded plan to convert parking spaces in the Langley Road triangle lot in Newton Center into a temporary public plaza without prior council review. Under the amendment, only the ward councilor where a trial occurs, or any three councilors together, may file an appeal within seven days; the item now goes to full council with a possible effective date of March 23. The committee also heard a revised version of the Newton Center plaza proposal from Planning and Development Director Barney Heath and Long-Range Planner Zachary Lamel, which shrinks the plaza from 52 displaced spaces to a net loss of eight while adding more than 60 new public spaces elsewhere in the village, and shortens the trial period from one year to summer and fall only; the committee unanimously voted to hold that item for further discussion.