Parking – Belmont Citizens Forum

Opinion: Parking, People, and Money

July/August 2023, Parking, Town Committee Meetings Comments Off

Jun 302023

By Max Colice A typical parking space takes up about 300 to 350 square feet. In Belmont, if you want to open a retail business or office, you’ll need one parking space per 250 square feet of retail or office space. That’s right: in Belmont, your parking lot will have to be bigger than your business. If you want to open a restaurant, you’ll need one parking space for every two seats. Again, that’s more land for parking than for people. Providing all of this parking makes opening a business in Belmont more expensive than it should be. Consider how [READ MORE]

Could Town Buildings Generate Solar Power?

Climate Change, Environment, January/February 2023, Newsletter, Solar Power Comments Off

Jan 032023

Could Town Buildings Generate Solar Power?

By Aditya Jain and Vincent Stanton, Jr. Imagine a project that would produce a new recurring revenue stream for Belmont without any upfront cost, utilizing only town-owned land and buildings, while lowering electricity costs and helping the town achieve its green energy goals. That could be the payoff for installing photovoltaic (PV) panels on town properties. Suitable town-owned sites include non-historic buildings with large flat rooftops, parking lots, and open ground including the former incinerator site along Concord Avenue. Adding PV arrays on privately owned rooftops and parking lots could significantly expand the network of arrays and improve the economics. [READ MORE]

School Claims Parking is “Educational Use”

Climate Change, Construction and Housing, Environment, January/February 2023, Open Space, Parking Comments Off

Jan 032023

School Claims Parking is “Educational Use”

By Justin Roe Belmont Hill School submitted their long-awaited plan for the Belmont Hill woodlands area to the planning board in October. The response from Belmont’s residents was instantaneous and overwhelming in opposing the proposal. Within three weeks, Belmont’s Select Committee and Planning Board have received hundreds of letters voicing town opposition to the project. A petition in opposition has attracted over 2,200 signatures, and hundreds of lawn signs and banners are popping up in every district in Belmont. School action groups from Lexington and Waltham are taking an active role. All within a few weeks. The school presented its [READ MORE]

Letter to the Editor, September 2022

Construction and Housing, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking, Sept/Oct 2022 Comments Off

Sep 092022

To the BCF editor: Anne Paulsen’s recent column [“Do We Need a High School Parking Lot?” BCF Newsletter, July 2022] argued that if parking were eliminated west of Harris Field, then there would be “plenty of room for tennis courts and some open space as well.” Whether tennis and a rink could both fit has been studied intensively by numerous informed parties: the High School Building Committee, a sports architect from Perkins+Will, rink architect Ted Galante, the Select Board, the School Committee, and the Preliminary Rink Design Committee. None of these efforts found a layout that could accommodate a rink, [READ MORE]

Do We Need a New High School Parking Lot?

July-August 2022, Newsletter, Parking Comments Off

Jun 202022

Do We Need a New High School Parking Lot?

By Anne Paulsen Belmont is a small town and space is limited. Land use planning is key to maintaining a town that is walkable and bikeable with shopping, services, recreation, educational opportunities, and open space close at hand. The key is how to make the best use of this limited space. The town is now planning the completion of the high and middle schools, and plans are underway for a new skating rink and library. Parking is a big part of the plans. For the last 50 years, off-street surface parking in the area west of Harris Field has been [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Seniors Have Transport Options

Newsletter, November-December 2021, Parking, Transit Comments Off

Nov 022021

Belmont’s Seniors Have Transport Options

By Nava Niv-Vogel Belmont’s adults over the age of 60 and people of any age with disabilities can get around without driving thanks to transportation services provided by the Council on Aging (COA). Most rides are provided by well-trained COA-funded drivers, and the three-vehicle fleet has many safety and disability-friendly features. In the era of COVID-19, COA drivers have also been practicing special safety protocols. The vehicles are routinely cleaned for airborne and surface germs. The rides offered are curb-to-curb. The passenger needs to be able to walk or otherwise get themselves to the van. Drivers are not permitted to [READ MORE]

Bike Infrastructure Makes Belmont Safer

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, July-August 2021, Newsletter, Traffic, Transit Comments Off

Jun 252021

By Jeff Roth Few Belmont residents use bikes to get around this small town of only 4.7 square miles, although most live hardly a mile from schools, recreation facilities, stores, transit stations, and restaurants. About 8.2% of Cambridge residents commute regularly by bike, but Belmont’s car-centered infrastructure likely is closer to the state average of 0.9%. Given that short, local trips are responsible for 60% of automobile pollution, how can we encourage car-free travel? Benefits of Walking and Cycling There are many benefits to expanding cycling and walking options in Belmont. People who cycle regularly for transportation and fitness have [READ MORE]

Rock Meadow Design Wins International Award

Environment, January 2021, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking Comments Off

Dec 312020

Rock Meadow Design Wins International Award

By Jeffrey North The Town of Belmont and the Belmont Conservation Commission congratulates Northeastern University Civil and Environmental Engineering graduates Samantha Kinnaly, Kate Engler, Annie Lamonte, and Emma Totsubo on the recent awards for their design of the main entrance and green infrastructure stormwater management at Belmont’s Rock Meadow conservation area. The project was developed during the spring 2020 capstone course under the supervision of Professor Annalis Onnis-Hayden of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department in partnership with the Belmont Conservation Commission. (See “New Rock Meadow Parking Plan Proposed,” Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, May/June 2020.) Their project won first place [READ MORE]

New Rock Meadow Parking Plan Proposed

Air Quality, Environment, July-August 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking, Plants, Stormwater, Traffic, Water Quality Comments Off

Jun 302020

By Jeffrey North and Mary Trudeau The Belmont Conservation Commission recently engaged a team of Northeastern University students to explore parking lot and stormwater drainage improvements for Rock Meadow. As visitors to Rock Meadow can attest, the parking lot is inefficient, rutted, partially paved, and often filled with pockets of standing water. Improvements have been called for since at least 1968, when the report, A Program for Renewing Rock Meadow, stated the obvious: “The entrance is not attractive and does not do justice to the beautiful area beyond.” The arrival experience is incongruent with Rock Meadow’s value as a treasured [READ MORE]

Cushing Square: What Did We Learn?

Construction and Housing, July-August 2020, Newsletter, Parking, Town Committee Meetings, Traffic 2 Responses »

Jun 302020

By Meg Muckenhoupt and Virginia Jordan The Bradford development in Cushing Square disrupted Belmont’s streets, sidewalks, planning, and politics, and stressed local businesses over the last decade. Town Meeting adopted a new overlay district in 2006 to channel development and provide the Planning Board with tools to control the scale and look of Cushing Village, now the Bradford, a three-building project comprising 38,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, 112 residential units on upper floors, and 201 parking spaces. In the past 14 years, the town has learned some lessons about managing large construction projects—and how large construction projects affect [READ MORE]

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