Belmont – Belmont Citizens Forum

Volunteers Clean Up and Restore Lone Tree Hill

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]

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]

Brighton Street Rezoning Gets Started

May/June 2026 Comments Off

Apr 242026

By Jeffrey North and Vincent Stanton, Jr. On March 30, the Belmont Select Board, Planning Board and Office of Planning and Building, with support from consultants able.city, held a kickoff meeting at the Belmont Library for a proposed new overlay zoning of the Brighton Street business district. 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. Select Board chair Matt Taylor proposed a timeline with draft zoning in place by late spring, followed by additional public meetings and review, culminating in a Town [READ MORE]

Belmont Creates Clean-Energy Corridor

Climate Change, March/April 2026, Solar Power Comments Off

Feb 202026

Sustainable infrastructure has fiscal, environmental benefits By Peter Dizikes Belmont is entering a new era of local energy production. Today, renewable energy capacity is becoming a normal component of our public buildings and even the town’s vehicle fleet because clean energy offers both fiscal savings and environmental benefits. Consider the flurry of recent building activity on lower Concord Avenue. Over the past five years, the town opened the new Belmont Public Library, the Belmont Sports Complex, Home of the Skip Viglirolo Rink, and the Belmont Middle and High School, all heavily powered by renewable energy. Together, these structures are turning [READ MORE]

Profile in Belmont: Joe Arkinstall

March/April 2026 Comments Off

Feb 202026

By Elissa Ely You open the door of The Wellington Tavern and are seated. Soon after, a man comes by to welcome you. His accent is richly British and he is winningly attentive. You find him familiar. Once the beloved co-owner of Stone Hearth Pizza, Joe Arkinstall is the manager here, now. Unless it’s Sunday morning, he will almost always find you. Sunday mornings are for family church. “It keeps the soul nice and clean,” he says. Restaurant management is a profession of perpetual motion: overseeing front-of-the-house cleanliness and appearance; overseeing back-of-the-house payroll, inventory, staff schedules, supplies; meeting with the [READ MORE]

Moderator Candidates Answer BCF Questions

March/April 2026 Comments Off

Feb 202026

Each year, the Belmont Citizens Forum asks candidates for town-wide office questions about issues facing Belmont. This year, Adam Dash and Mike Crowley are running for town moderator. BCF The moderator has broad authority over Town Meeting. How do you define the moderator’s core responsibilities in Belmont, and what principles would guide your exercise of that responsibility, particularly in contentious debates? Adam Dash I have the experience and skills to carry out the three main functions of the town moderator: (i) run large hybrid meetings, (ii) render legal rulings, and (iii) make committee appointments. I have done all three things [READ MORE]

Select Board Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Board of Selectmen, March/April 2026 Comments Off

Feb 202026

Select Board Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Each year, the Belmont Citizens Forum asks candidates for town-wide office questions about issues facing Belmont. As of this publication Carol Berberian is the sole candidate running for Select Board. If another candidate emerges, see BelmontCitizensForum.org for their answers. BCF How do you propose to address Belmont’s structural fiscal challenges, and what specific budget or revenue strategies would you champion as a Select Board member? Berberian Belmont can build on the work of the Multi-Year Budget Advisory Committee to strengthen its financial future through realistic long-term planning and spending decisions that align with sustainable revenue. I will work to expand [READ MORE]

Belmont Could Tax Land Differently

March/April 2026 Comments Off

Feb 202026

By Max Colice Town Meeting changed Belmont’s zoning bylaws last year to allow new housing development and is considering more zoning changes to allow new commercial development, partly in an effort to increase property tax revenue. But simply changing the zoning doesn’t guarantee more development or higher property tax revenue. How else can Belmont encourage new housing construction and commercial development? One very old idea for encouraging development is the Land Value Tax. Instead of taxing both land and buildings like the current property tax, a Land Value Tax applies only to land, not to the buildings. Under a Land [READ MORE]

Opinion: What is a Town For?

Construction and Housing, March/April 2026 Comments Off

Feb 202026

By Meg Muckenhoupt This issue contains an article by respected Belmont residents arguing that a proposed overlay district in Belmont Center will lead to a net loss to the town. Those calculations are at odds with the numbers produced by the Warrant Committee, which predict an annual net increase in town revenue between $127,000 and $857,00 (see bit.ly/BCF-Overlay-Fiscal). Which numbers you believe are more credible depends on your assumptions—chiefly assumptions about school enrollment. Children cost towns money. They’re expensive to educate, they like to play in parks that are expensive to maintain, and they increase the need for traffic enforcement [READ MORE]

Will Anything Get Built?

March/April 2026 Comments Off

Feb 202026

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. The real estate developer focus group convened by Office of Planning and Building Director Chris Ryan in early-mid 2025 provided important, if disappointing, feedback on the economic feasibility of building in Belmont Center (see “Developer perspectives: condensed and edited transcript”). The transcript of that meeting is full of daunting assessments of the current market for commercial real estate. 20% to 30% vacancy rates for office space in Boston and Cambridge. (In January 2026, subsequent to the focus group, OZK Bank wrote off $72 million of its investment in renovated office space in the former Sullivan Courthouse [READ MORE]

Developer Perspectives: Condensed and Edited Transcript

March/April 2026 Comments Off

Feb 202026

Last spring, Belmont Office of Planning and Building Director Chris Ryan interviewed a group of 11 local real estate professionals with diverse backgrounds: some specializing in affordable housing, or mixed commercial-residential projects, or hotel/commercial, others from real estate investment firms. The goal of the session was to assess the level of interest in a rezoned Belmont Center with a potentially two-to-three time greater density than currently allowed, and to solicit advice on how to make the project attractive. (Note that the scale of allowable buildings has been reduced in most areas since this meeting.) The meeting transcript is 20 pages. [READ MORE]

Belmont Center Landlord Perspectives

March/April 2026 Comments Off

Feb 202026

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. The Newsletter contacted four Belmont Center landlords with questions about their perspective on the proposed rezoning measures, and whether and how the new zoning, if adopted by Town Meeting, might influence their plans. Scott Tellier, principal at Tellier Properties which owns 31-43 Leonard Street in Belmont Center (Irresistables, Santander Bank, Brueggers Bagels, Union Pharmacy), as well as 375 and 385 Concord Avenue in the proposed Center Gateway Overlay, and Kevin Foley, principal at Locatelli Properties which owns 49-89 Leonard Street, the largest parcel in Belmont Center (Butternut Bakehouse, Champions, Lagree Lab, Brooksy’s, Revolve, Westcott Mercantile, Patou [READ MORE]

What the Select Board Said on the Overlay

March/April 2026, Newsletter Comments Off

Feb 202026

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. and Michael Widmer The Select Board (SB) discussed the Belmont Center rezoning articles at its January 26, 2026 meeting (link to video; discussion starts at 2:42:15), and again on February 9 (link to video; discussion starts at 1:58:30). Select Board members rebutted many widely expressed public criticisms. (Of course the three SB members have distinct views about the rezoning, and many of the views summarized below were expressed by only one or two SB members, but they are largely in agreement about the big questions.) What follows is author Stanton’s interpretation of SB members’ statements on [READ MORE]

Belmont Center Zoning Project

March/April 2026, Newsletter Comments Off

Feb 092026

The analyses by the Office of Planning and Building(OPB) are very different from the figures published in this newsletter, and there is far more information available about the Project than can fit in the BCF’s print Newsletter. In the interest of fairness, we are providing links to analyses by the Office of Planning and Building and the Warrant Committee and alternative viewpoints on this proposal. The town’s Belmont Center Zoning Project Site The Warrant Committee’s Belmont Center Overlay Fiscal Impact Analysis, which found that ”the overall fiscal impact of developments built under the proposed Belmont Center Overlay District is likely [READ MORE]

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