Neither position is favored by the WIS.

Supporting view

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s Emergency Department/Parking Project.  We appreciate the support the project has received to date from our Waban neighbors. 

 The Emergency Department (ED) expansion, outpatient space and additional parking are critical in our efforts to maintain the well-being of our patients.  Over the last 19 months, we have been meeting with our neighbors, both in groups and individually, to discuss the project and work out mitigation efforts, especially with regard to the Hospital’s need for sensitive but critical parking.

Working with a landscape architect, the Hospital will plant several hundred trees to provide a screen between the Hospital campus and abutting property.  Fencing will be also be installed or upgraded. Additionally the Hospital will work on light, noise and dust mitigation, including a prohibition against parking on the top level of the garage at night.  Newton-Wellesley worked directly with the owners of any property that would have a view of the parking garage and created actual photographic renderings of what their view would be after landscaping and mitigation.  Some of this landscaping includes planting trees and other vegetation on their property.

I invite you to contact me directly if you would like additional information on the ED expansion, the need for more parking, and the Hospital’s efforts to mitigate the project’s impact on our immediate neighbors.  Or if more convenient, information can also be found on the Hospital’s website, http://www.nwh.org. 

Sincerely yours,

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Opposing view

Hello Neighbors,

After the last public hearing about the Newton Wellesley Hospital multi-level parking garage, Justin Sallaway and several neighbors on Dorset Road and Bonaire Circle prepared some materials to help neighbors communicate with the Board of Aldermen about the project. These materials are attached (Word format), and below is a text version of the "Dear Neighbor" letter that summarizes the current situation. Please note that the next hearing is Feb. 15 at 7:45 PM and it's critical that as many neighbors as possible attend and speak at the hearing so that our voices can be heard! The other attachments are sample letters to the aldermen, which you can use or modify as you see fit, and a petition that some neighbors have signed – Justin asks that you be in touch with him (jsallaway@aol.com) if you would like to sign the petition or print out your copy and have others sign it.

Also, several neighbors are meeting tomorrow (Weds. 2/2) at 7 AM at Barry’s Deli in Waban Square to discuss further preparations for the Feb. 15 meeting. Although there’s not a lot of space for a large meeting they are particularly interested in having someone from Longfellow Road attend so if you are on this list and live on Longfellow Road please see if you can. Justin would be able to provide more info about this meeting.

Thanks,

Elizabeth Connolly

The following are MS Word documents

1/23/05 petition    NWH letter (same as below)    Sample Alderman Letter    Alderman List

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Dear Neighbor,

As part of its project to expand its emergency department, Newton-Wellesley Hospital is applying to the city for a special permit to build a 680 car multi-level parking garage that would come within 60 feet of residential property on Bonaire Circle off Dorset Road and increase the number of parking spaces on the campus by about 570, or one third of the total of spaces on the hospital campus. The parking garage would be fifteen feet high and would also be able to be seen by neighbors on Dorset Road and Beacon Street.

It is important that the Board of Alderman hear your feelings about the project now. The next public hearing on the project is scheduled for February 15 at City Hall at 7:45 pm – please attend to make your concerns heard. Also, enclosed is a sample letter to the Newton Aldermen along with a list of their names and addresses. Letter may also be sent by e-mail to Alderman George Mansfield, chairman of the Land Use Committee now hearing the Hospital’s application - gmansfield@ci.newton.ma.us - with a request that the e-mail be copied to other Aldermen. Feel free to adapt the letter to whatever your greatest concerns are. We are also circulating a petition addressing these issues. Some critical issues are:

1. Size and placement of the parking garage. The hospital should be able to scale the proposed garage project back about 10% (60 spaces – the half of the upper deck closest to Bonaire Circle) to make it less visible in the neighborhood. There is good rationale for this, because the hospital has said they will not need these spaces for seven years, and there are other options such as purchasable property and projects with the MBTA that could be negotiated over time to meet this need. The beauty of Waban’s neighborhoods should be maintained.

2. Selling back the two houses on Bonaire Circle. The hospital is in the process of purchasing two out of the four houses on Bonaire Circle. In the interests of avoiding a transient atmosphere in the neighborhood, we would like the hospital to sell these houses, on the open market, once the construction of the parking garage is completed.

3. Traffic. The hospital project will increase the already heavy traffic on Washington Street. To reduce some the delays, the hospital is considering shortening the Beacon St. light at Washington St. This will certainly push many cars down Varick, Agawam, Samoset Roads and the other side streets onto Quinobequin Road to avoid back-ups at the Beacon Street light, yet the Hospital has ignored this traffic impact. It is also important that the entrance to and exit from Longfellow Road be improved.

4. Guidelines around future expansion. The large amount of parking spaces that are being built for future expansion (according to the hospital 250 spaces) makes one wonder what this expansion will consist of. Are new buildings planned? If so, where will they be? The Board of Aldermen needs to ask the hospital to work with the community to set guidelines for future expansion of the hospital. There should never again be a situation where the community is presented with a completed plan two days before submission to the city and be told it is too late for their input.

When you write to the Aldermen, you might mention that, although you do support the emergency room expansion, most of the parking garage is being built for future expansion and is not connected to the emergency room project.

Thank you for your support! If you have any question, please contact one of us.

Justin and Debra Sallaway, 10 Bonaire Circle

Michael and Sharon Wolfson 277 Dorset Road

Fran Bancroft 291 Dorset Road

Nicolas Lazaris 1947 Beacon Street