Council holds trial to allow temporary parking and bus-stop changes during Newtonville station reconstruction

The Newton Traffic Council voted 5'to'00 on July 1 to hold a long-term trial permitting temporary changes to parking, bus-stop locations and metered spaces near the Newtonville MBTA commuter rail station to facilitate an upcoming reconstruction project.

Captain Daniel Divine (Traffic Bureau), DPW Commissioner Shauna Sullivan and acting planning director KD Willwell requested the trial to allow staff to respond quickly to operational issues that arise during construction, including temporary bus-stop relocations and removal or relocation of parking and meters. The project will reconstruct the Newtonville station to add ADA-compliant platforms inbound and outbound, and staff said some temporary changes are necessary for the duration of the work.

Councilor Lucas described specific likely changes discussed at a recent community meeting: removing public parking on the south side of Washington Street between Walnut and Harvard streets, relocating a bus stop west of Walnut Street and removing parking on the southbound side of Walnut Street north of Washington Street to accommodate a relocated bus shelter. Lucas also noted other adjustments might be considered, such as reassigning a postal-only lane to metered parking when postal vehicles are not present.

David Koses, traffic council chair, moved to hold TC 5226 as a long-term trial so staff could make temporary traffic and parking regulation changes during the reconstruction; the motion passed unanimously on a roll-call vote. Council members said permanent changes would require separate docketed traffic-council items after the trial, and that any temporary changes would revert to the official TPR after project completion unless the council later adopted them permanently.

The council recorded the hold action and asked staff to coordinate next steps with the project team and to provide updates as necessary.