Belmont Citizens Forum

Selectman Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Board of Selectmen, March-April 2018, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 212018

Selectman Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Belmont Annual Town Election to be Held Tuesday, April 3 Each year the Belmont Citizens Forum asks candidates for selectman about issues the town will likely face in the next three years. This year Tom Caputo is running uncontested for the seat currently occupied by Jim Williams, who is retiring after one term. Below are Caputo’s unedited replies to our questions about the environment, traffic, funding, and planning. 1. How would you address the amount of cut-through traffic in Belmont? Cut-through traffic in Belmont has always been bad, but it has significantly worsened with the development of GPS apps [READ MORE]

Hello. Goodbye. And Thank You.

March-April 2018, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 212018

Welcome to Sara McCabe. The Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter is pleased to welcome our new editor, Sara McCabe. Sara has more than 15 years of experience in publications management, and has produced magazines, books, web content, and other communications for a variety of clients nationwide, including Hilton Hotels and several state tourism departments. Sara is also a successful grant writer and has served on many nonprofit boards and advisory and event committees. She holds a bachelor’s in marketing from Santa Clara University and a master’s in organizational leadership and ethics from St. Edward’s University. Sara lives in East Arlington but [READ MORE]

Historical Society Calls for Award Nominations

Historic Preservation, March-April 2018, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 212018

Historical Society Calls for Award Nominations

The Belmont Historical Society invites you to nominate projects that have furthered preservation efforts in Belmont for the David R. Johnson Preservation Award. Properties throughout the town, not just in the historic districts, are eligible. There are six categories of projects for nomination: Private residences; Commercial properties; Publicly owned properties; Properties owned by nonprofit institutions; Landscape projects; and Preservation of open space and land conservation. Individuals, companies, or institutions that have made significant contributions to historic preservation in Belmont will also be considered. Awards will be presented at the society’s annual meeting on May 16. Congratulations to last year’s awardees: [READ MORE]

Symposium Explores Alewife Resilience

Environment, March-April 2018, Newsletter, Water Quality Comments Off

Mar 212018

By Sarah Howard with Patricia Loheed “When it comes to natural disasters, 2017 was one for the record books,” according to a recent Weather Channel video. With increasingly extreme weather, area residents have been expressing concerns about the Alewife Corridor. Many still remember when a section of Route 16 remained underwater for two weeks in 1997, becoming impassable to traffic and blocking an evacuation route. The recent “bombogenesis” storm in early January, which caused significant flooding and storm surges in the Boston area, has only added to the commonly voiced concerns. Most of us know the Alewife Corridor area as [READ MORE]

Thaddeus Frost House Local Historic District Proposed

Historic Preservation, March-April 2018, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 212018

Thaddeus Frost House Local Historic District Proposed

By Lauren G. Meier This spring, Town Meeting will consider the opportunity to create a new local historic district to protect one of Belmont’s most important historic resources, the Thaddeus Frost House on Brighton Street. In this case, the proposed district is a single property, which is allowed under M.G.L., Chapter 40C: Historic Districts. The Thaddeus Frost House on Brighton Street predates Belmont’s incorporation as a town in 1859. Colonial land grants established Watertown and Newtowne (now Cambridge) in 1630, including the land that is now Belmont. By the 19th century, large landowners, including prosperous farmers, were dissatisfied with high [READ MORE]

Committee Recommends Six CPA Projects

Historic Preservation, March-April 2018, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 212018

By Peg Velie This year the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) is recommending six projects to Town Meeting for funding, totaling $1,518,087. If approved, these projects will be funded via the Community Preservation Act (CPA). The CPA is a 2001 Massachusetts law that allows towns to establish a local fund dedicated solely to open space (including outdoor recreation), historic preservation, and affordable housing. Belmont adopted the CPA in November 2010. May’s Town Meeting will be Belmont’s sixth for appropriating funds to CPA projects. In the last five years, Town Meeting has appropriated more than $6 million for 33 projects, including the [READ MORE]

Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day

Environment, March-April 2018, Newsletter, Volunteer Comments Off

Mar 212018

Join us in stewarding Lone Tree Hill! The Belmont Citizens Forum, in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, is holding its annual cleanup and trail maintenance day on Saturday, April 28, from 9 AM to noon. Last year, we helped plant 45 trees along Pine Allee and clean up the Coal Road area. Students can earn community service credits. Bounded by Concord Avenue, Pleasant Street, and Mill Street, Lone Tree Hill spans 119 acres of permanently protected conservation land and is available to everyone. It is stewarded through a public/private partnership by the town and McLean Hospital, and [READ MORE]

Environmental Events, March-April 2018

Environment, March-April 2018, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 212018

Woolapalooza at Drumlin Farm Saturday, March 24, 10 AM–4 PM Celebrate the coming of spring at this annual festival featuring fiber, food, and fun! Highlights include new spring babies, a sheep shearing demonstration, hands-on activities for all ages, lunch made fresh from Drumlin Farm vegetables and meat (for purchase), and local fiber artisans who will offer demonstrations. Mass Audubon members: $15/person, nonmembers: $17, children under age 2: free. Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, 208 S Great Road, Lincoln. Arlington Ecofest 2018: Greenward Saturday, March 24, 10 AM–2 PM Activities for all ages will center around land and water management, plants [READ MORE]

January/February 2018 Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter & PDF

Air Quality, Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Construction and Housing, donations, Environment, Historic Preservation, Jan-Feb 2018, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking, Plants, Recycling, Stormwater, Traffic, Transit, Volunteer, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 162018

View or download the January-February 2018 issue as a color PDF here, or read single articles below. . Articles in this issue: A Vision for Belmont Looking Back, Looking Ahead by Sue Bass Nearly eight years ago, in the spring of 2010, the town completed two years of work on a comprehensive plan intended to guide the next decade of change in Belmont. Looking back, how are we doing? The $148,000 plan, called “A Vision for Belmont: Mapping a Sustainable Future,” which was adopted by the Belmont Planning Board and is posted on its website, made nine primary recommendations. Read more. [READ MORE]

Remaking The Hell Strip

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Environment, Jan-Feb 2018, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking, Plants, Traffic, Transit Comments Off

Jan 162018

Pavement and Policy in Belmont by Kate Bowen In 2015, I wrote a story for this newsletter on “hell strips,” those swaths of dirt between the sidewalk and the street, where water-thirsty plants die and well-suited natives thrive. To recall the benefits, these planted strips cool streets in the heat. They provide filtration of fine particulate matter making sidewalk areas healthier. They provide food for birds and insects, and hold snow in winter. And, they delineate the vehicle travel/parking lane from the sidewalk area. This last function has become most important to me. In 2016, Bartlett Avenue, where I live, [READ MORE]

The Bradford Keeps Moving Ahead

Air Quality, Construction and Housing, Environment, Newsletter, Parking, Traffic, Transit Comments Off

Jan 162018

But Progress is Slow and Info Is Lacking by John DiCocco Would you buy a used car from Toll Brothers? Trust is difficult when repeated questions go unanswered. Since our last story in September 2017, “What’s The Latest in Cushing Square?”, construction has been slow and information flow has been slower. It’s wise for the town to continually kick the tires and keep having its own mechanic inspect the goods. Fencing, one lingering safety issue has finally been addressed, while another, contaminated soil, took a new turn. The project was shut down December 11 because of a permit problem. Ongoing [READ MORE]

Environmental Events

Air Quality, Environment, Historic Preservation, Jan-Feb 2018, Newsletter, Stormwater, Traffic, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 162018

Compiled by John DiCocco and Evanthia Malliris Alewife Corridor Resilience Symposium: Collaboratively Framing Scenarios Friday January 19, 6-9 PM & Saturday, January 20, 8 AM–4:30PM The symposium will convene the Alewife corridor communities of Belmont, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, and Winchester to examine the Alewife floodplain in its entirety, and explore collaborative scenarios for tackling issues of resiliency and climate adaptation. Sponsored by Earthos Institute and Tufts. Free. Registration required.alewiferesilience.org. More info: sarah-earthos@LDParch.com. Friday: Arlington Town Hall, 730 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington Saturday: Tufts University, 40 [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Housing Future

Construction and Housing, Historic Preservation, Newsletter, Nov-Dec 2017, Parking, Traffic, Transit Comments Off

Nov 092017

Providing More Affordable Options by Julie Perkins Belmont is a wealthy town by most standards, with a higher-than-state-average median income. But a quarter of Belmont’s population would be eligible for affordable housing if more were available, according to statistics gathered by Metro West Collaborative Development, a nonprofit based in Newton. And creating that housing (also called “community housing”1) would get the town out from under the threat of unwanted development—because Belmont would meet the state standard of having 10% of its housing affordable. For the past two years, the Belmont Housing Trust has been working on a housing production plan (HPP) to encourage [READ MORE]

Belmont Citizens Forum Nov-Dec 2017 Newsletter

Air Quality, Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Construction and Housing, donations, Environment, Historic Preservation, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Nov-Dec 2017, Open Space, Parking, Traffic, Transit Comments Off

Nov 092017

View or download the November-December 2017 issue as a color PDF here, or read single articles below. . . Articles in this issue: Belmont’s Housing Future. Providing More Affordable Options. Read more here. Belmont Traffic: Driving In, Out, and Through Everyone Is Someone Else’s Cut-Through Traffic Read more here. JKR Conservation Fund Charts A New Path New Structure, New Name Read more here. An Update On The Bradford Multiple Activities On- And Off-site Read more here. Environmental Events Read more here.

Belmont Traffic: Driving In, Out, and Through

Air Quality, Bicycles and bike paths, Environment, Newsletter, Nov-Dec 2017, Open Space, Parking, Traffic, Transit Comments Off

Nov 092017

Belmont Traffic: Driving In, Out, and Through

Everyone Is Someone Else’s Cut-Through Traffic by Aryan Mehrotra, with Sumner Brown Watching drivers trying to get through the railroad underpass at Belmont Center is unnerving, especially when someone who apparently did not learn to take turns in kindergarten starts swearing. Belmont’s traffic seems to be getting worse. Where does it come from and where is it going? How much traffic cuts through Belmont? On weekday mornings, traffic backs up from Belmont Center to the top of Belmont Hill, snagged by the three places where cars cross or pass under the railroad tracks. Cut-through = Congestion Many people in Belmont [READ MORE]

An Update On The Bradford

Air Quality, Construction and Housing, Historic Preservation, Newsletter, Nov-Dec 2017, Parking, Traffic, Transit, Uncategorized Comments Off

Nov 092017

Multiple Activities On- and Off-site by John DiCocco Excavation and foundation work continues at the Bradford, the apartment and retail complex in Cushing Square, previously known as Cushing Village. However, the contaminated soil remaining from the demolished Tops Cleaners continues to be a problem and has not yet been treated to a level that allows it to be handled as non-hazardous waste. A new round of tests is pending. A Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) site visit in early October found a new area of potential contamination. Since DEP visits infrequently, and Toll/Nauset Construction (the primary contractor) hadn’t flagged this area [READ MORE]

Environmental Events, Nov-Dec 2017

Air Quality, Environment, Newsletter, Nov-Dec 2017, Open Space, Recycling, Solar Power, Uncategorized, Volunteer, Water Quality Comments Off

Nov 092017

Big Woods Hike Sunday, November 19, 11:30 AM–3 PM There’s a walk in the woods…and then there’s a walk in the woods with a naturalist to discover what is happening in the world of nature as plants and animals prepare for winter. Sanctuary naturalists will lead small groups as they venture out to the “Big Woods” on Averill’s Island. Stop along the way to hear stories of the original settlers and learn about the fascinating cultural history of the sanctuary. Look for animal signs as we hike through the woodlands and marshes. Dress warmly and wear comfortable footwear. Warm up [READ MORE]

Older Entries Newer Entries