Newsletter – Belmont Citizens Forum

Read the July/August 2026 BCF Newsletter

July/August 2026, Newsletter Comments Off

Jul 012026

Read the July/August 2026 BCF Newsletter Meet Belmont’s Natural Resources Manager: Will McPhee William “Will” McPhee brings a background in forestry, horticulture, and municipal land stewardship to his new role as Belmont’s new natural resources manager and conservation agent. In this interview with Jeffrey North, McPhee discusses Belmont’s urban tree canopy, invasive species, climate resilience, open-space stewardship, and the role residents can play in caring for the town’s natural resources. The Library Garden’s New Look Goes With The Flow of Wellington Brook By Fred Bouchard. Landscape architect Glen Valentine of Stimson, principal on the garden redesign in collaboration [READ MORE]

McLean Hospital Zone 3 Housing Breaks Ground

Construction and Housing, July/August 2026, McLean, Newsletter Comments Off

Jun 302026

McLean Hospital Zone 3 Housing Breaks Ground

By Jeffrey North The long–planned “Zone 3” housing on McLean land is finally moving forward with construction of a 150‑unit, all‑electric housing complex poised to become one of the town’s most significant new sources of both market‑rate and affordable homes. Construction is visible from the Coal Road as it winds up Belmont Hill from Pleasant Street. Brief History of Zone 3 In 1999 Belmont and McLean Hospital consummated an agreement that rezoned 238 acres of McLean land. In exchange for upzoning some of the undeveloped land surrounding the McLean campus to permit commercial development Belmont received 119 acres of conservation [READ MORE]

Our Environmental Stewards: Ian Cooke, NepRWA

Environment, July/August 2026, Newsletter Comments Off

Jun 292026

Our Environmental Stewards: Ian Cooke, NepRWA

This article is part of the Belmont Citizens Forum’s series on environmental leadership in Massachusetts. Within 20 years, I expect to see a more free-flowing Neponset River teeming with native and anadromous fish, with a connected network of bike and pedestrian trails … where people can swim in their local pond or waterway … where restored floodplains and green infrastructure keep us cool, protect people from flooding, and support thriving wildlife. The Neponset River Watershed Association (NepRWA) works to protect and restore one of Greater Boston’s most historically significant rivers, whose 30‑mile course drains parts of 14 cities and towns [READ MORE]

Lexington’s Conservation Stewards

Environment, July/August 2026, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Jun 292026

By Jeffrey North Lexington’s Conservation Division and its network of Conservation Stewards form one of the most robust municipal stewardship programs in the region. Together, they care for more than 1,400 acres of conservation land and more than 50 miles of trails. This partnership offers a useful model for towns like Belmont that are looking to stretch limited staff capacity and improve the ecology and public enjoyment of local open space. The Conservation Division’s Core Mission Lexington’s Conservation Division is the town department charged with administering state and local wetlands laws, managing town-owned conservation land, and supporting the appointed Conservation [READ MORE]

The William Flagg Homer House, a Quest for Escape, Community Service, Empowerment, Enjoyment, and Suffrage

Arts & Culture, Historic Preservation, History, July/August 2026, Newsletter Comments Off

Jun 282026

The William Flagg Homer House, a Quest for Escape, Community Service, Empowerment, Enjoyment, and Suffrage

By John Beaty This story is the second article about the William Flagg Homer House in Belmont. The first, “Who Built the Homer House?” (BCF Newsletter, September/October 2025 issue), focused on how the house was financed, designed, and built. Here, we will describe the extraordinary effort local women made to purchase the grand old house for their Belmont Woman’s Club (BWC). This purchase was made in the context of the suffragists’ campaign for women’s rights across the country. Women’s clubs were established to free women from the home and to provide them refuge, empowerment, enjoyment, and opportunities to serve their communities. [READ MORE]

Profile in Belmont: Cabell Eames

July/August 2026, Newsletter Comments Off

Jun 262026

By Elissa Ely Most of us work in one profession; maybe two, if there’s a second chapter. A rare number find themselves in three. But vanishingly few have led so many lives that it’s hard to keep count (and for that matter, hard to limit the words on their profile). If someone introduced you to Cabell Eames today, it would be as founder of Castling Strategies, a woman-owned policy consulting and advocacy firm. The public interest initiatives she shepherds include climate change, social justice, and immigration reform. Her position requires a polymath: someone with scientific comprehension, political and interpersonal sophistication, [READ MORE]

Traffic Jam! TAC Raises Transportation Issues

July/August 2026, Newsletter, Traffic Comments Off

Jun 252026

By Chip Gaysunas Due to Belmont’s central location in the greater Boston area, its streets experience significant cut-through traffic and congestion daily. Many of Belmont’s streets date to the 1800s and were not designed to handle the speed, weight, and volume of vehicles currently using them. Unfortunately, motorists cutting through Belmont rarely consider the impact their speed and distracted driving can have on pedestrians, cyclists, and other motorists. Streets leading to and through Belmont Center, Waverley Square, and Cushing Square typically see the highest daily traffic volume. However, streets serving schools, parks, and other town amenities also experience significant daily [READ MORE]

Balancing Play and Preservation: Inside Belmont’s Open Space Plan Update

July/August 2026, Newsletter, Open Space, Town Committee Meetings Comments Off

Jun 252026

Balancing Play and Preservation: Inside Belmont’s Open Space Plan Update

A Summary of OSRP Virtual Public Meeting, Thursday, May 28, at 6:30 PM By Jeffrey North Belmont’s Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP) is nearing completion after eight months of technical analysis and public engagement. At the final public meeting on May 28 residents called for a balance between recreational uses and the protection of natural resources. The 10–year plan will now be refined and submitted to the state’s Division of Conservation Services (DCS), within the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Upon DCS approval Belmont will become eligible for important open space and recreation grants. Belmont’s last OSRP [READ MORE]

The Library Garden’s New Look Goes With The Flow of Wellington Brook

Environment, July/August 2026, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, Stormwater Comments Off

Jun 252026

The Library Garden's New Look Goes With The Flow of Wellington Brook

By Fred Bouchard “I saw the Wellington Brook as the most important ‘book’ in the library’s collection.” – Glen Valentine Whenever you visit the new Belmont Public Library, take time to visit the garden. Time out a bit from words and pages. Sit on a bench or rock wall. Amble about the paths. Read a poem aloud. Breathe in the trees’ oxygen. Quiz a robin. Play a wooden flute. Admire the bright azaleas. Look up at the seductive magnolias. Worship the majestic Dawn Redwood. Declaim from the amphitheater. But, above all, be sure to watch (and listen to) the Wellington Brook [READ MORE]

Meet Belmont’s Natural Resources Manager

Environment, July/August 2026, Plants Comments Off

Jun 222026

Meet Belmont’s Natural Resources Manager

William “Will” McPhee brings a background in forestry, horticulture, and municipal land stewardship to his new role as Belmont’s new natural resources manager. A graduate of Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School’s horticulture program, McPhee went on to study parks, recreation, and tourism at the University of Maine, where he later earned a master’s degree in forestry. McPhee worked with the City of Bangor, Maine, on its emerald ash borer response program, helping the city plan for a pest that has damaged ash trees across much of the country. In Belmont, he first took on the role of tree warden [READ MORE]

Volunteers Clean Up and Restore Lone Tree Hill

Lone Tree Hill, May/June 2026 Comments Off

Apr 292026

Volunteers Clean Up and Restore Lone Tree Hill

By Radha Iyengar On a sunny and cool Saturday, April 25, the Belmont Citizens Forum (BCF), in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, held its 12th annual Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day. The volunteers included Girl Scout Troop 84205, Cityside Subaru employees, volunteers from Habitat, and citizens from Belmont and the surrounding communities. Many hands made light work. This year we had three different work locations. At the Meadow Edge Trail, volunteers planted 60 white pine saplings and five eastern red cedar saplings. These trees will eventually create shade as another way to make it harder for the buckthorn [READ MORE]

Letters to the Editor May/June 2026

May/June 2026 Comments Off

Apr 242026

To the Editor of the Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, The January/February Newsletter essay on Chicago real estate investments by Belmont-born Peter Chardon Brooks III led me to think your readers also might like to know of his activity as a Boston art collector. In the mid-1860s, Brooks joined others acquiring paintings by French artists of the Barbizon School, coming to own important works by Corot, Millet, and Vermont-born William Morris Hunt, a Barbizon enthusiast. Quality was very important to Brooks, and he was aware of Boston’s developing ambition as a cultural center, made explicit when the young Museum of Fine [READ MORE]

Belmont Historical Society Enjoys New Rooms

Historic Preservation, History, May/June 2026 Comments Off

Apr 242026

Belmont Historical Society Enjoys New Rooms

Viktoria Haase, Belmont Historical Society president, provided an overview of the society’s collection in its new digs in the Belmont Library, including old newspapers and census ledgers in the Local History Room. The Underwood Room is lined with books, including a variety of town records along with books by local authors. Find both rooms on the second floor.

Miyawaki Forest Grows Through Two Seasons

Environment, May/June 2026, Plants Comments Off

Apr 242026

Miyawaki Forest Grows Through Two Seasons

By Fred Bouchard and Jean Devine By Clay Pit Pond’s bridge on that brilliantly sunny October morning, dozens of eager planters — aged 12 to 80, armed with shovels and trowels — were swarming among hundreds of potted saplings and bushes at Belmont’s inaugural Miyawaki Forest. (Akira Miyawaki, 1928-2021, was a Japanese botanist who developed the practice of restoring small plots of degraded land with densely planted pocket parks.) Curious joggers, dog-walkers, strollers, and pram-pushers who paused for a look-see or polite query barely slowed the feverish activity that unrolled all day long, from 8 AM to 6 PM. The [READ MORE]

BCF Editor Retires

January 2004, May/June 2026 Comments Off

Apr 242026

By Sue Bass Meg Muckenhoupt didn’t invent the Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter. It was already nearly four years old when she answered an ad for a new editor. Sharon Vanderslice, who had suggested creating the newsletter and had designed the first iteration, was tired of doing it. The first issue with Meg’s name as editor was Volume 5, #1, of January 2004, quite a while ago. Now she has announced that the last issue she’ll edit is this one, Volume 27, #3, of May 2026. Meg announced this on February 16. “I am not facing grave illness, and I am [READ MORE]

Profile in Belmont: Anne Marie Mahoney

May/June 2026 Comments Off

Apr 242026

By Elissa Ely At some point, we all become experts in grief. After Anne Marie Mahoney lost her mother, husband, sister-in-law, brother, and father within a few stunning years, she became an involuntary expert. Hospice and hospital resources were available in the beginning, but after a year or so—when the paperwork was done and the casseroles were no longer delivered—she had a sense that others felt it was time for her to move along. They may have been ready. She was not. “You wake up one morning,” she remembers, “and the permanence of loss sets in. Everyone’s dead. It becomes [READ MORE]

Environmental Leader: David O’Neill

Climate Change, Environment, May/June 2026, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Apr 242026

Mass Audubon, founded in 1896, is one of the oldest and largest conservation organizations in New England. With more than 112 wildlife sanctuaries across Massachusetts, a network of 180,000 members and supporters, and a mission to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and wildlife, Mass Audubon combines land protection, habitat restoration, conservation science, and environmental education to safeguard biodiversity and build climate resilience across the Commonwealth. The Belmont Citizens Forum spoke with David O’Neill, president and CEO of Mass Audubon, about the organization’s statewide conservation strategy, its partnerships with communities and policymakers, and his vision for the future of [READ MORE]

Community Preservation Committee Endorses Projects

Construction and Housing, Environment, Historic Preservation, May/June 2026, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Apr 242026

Community Preservation Committee Endorses Projects

By Aaron Pikcilingis Each spring at Belmont’s Annual Town Meeting, Town Meeting members (TMM) consider projects recommended by the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) and vote whether to award each Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding. TMM may choose to either fund the project as recommended, reject the project, or reduce the funding. CPA funding requires both the recommendation of the CPC and Town Meeting, so TMMs may not elect to vote for different projects or substantially alter a proposed project, nor may they vote to provide more CPA funding to a given project than is recommended by the CPC. For FY2027, [READ MORE]

Belmont Joins the ADU Era

Construction and Housing, May/June 2026 Comments Off

Apr 242026

By Jeffrey North Belmont now allows small accessory apartments by right on most residential lots, putting it roughly in line with neighbors like Arlington and Lexington — but the number actually built so far remains very low. After years of debate, Belmont has joined the growing list of Massachusetts communities that allow “accessory dwelling units” (ADUs) on most residential lots. The town’s ADU bylaw, approved at the March 2025 Special Town Meeting, was crafted to comply with the state’s 2024 Affordable Homes Act, which requires communities to allow at least one small ADU by right where residential units are allowed. [READ MORE]

May/June 2026 BCF Newsletter

May/June 2026, Newsletter Comments Off

Apr 242026

Read the May/June 2026 BCF Newsletter In this issue: Brighton Street Rezoning Gets Started The zoning is to be developed utilizing the same form-based code that Town Meeting adopted in March when it created new overlay zoning for Belmont Center. Read more. Volunteers Clean Up and Restore Lone Tree Hill On a sunny and cool Saturday, April 25, the Belmont Citizens Forum (BCF), in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, held its 12th annual Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day. Read more. Belmont Joins the ADU Era Belmont now allows small accessory apartments by right on most residential lots, [READ MORE]

Older Entries