Newton committee holds off on changing setback rules after utility and planner warn more coordination needed

The Newton Zoning and Planning Committee on July 20 postponed action on a proposed change to Section 1.53 of the zoning code that would allow electrical transformers to project into required setbacks, after hearing technical, safety and process concerns from city planners and Eversource representatives.

Kat Kemmett, chief planner for current planning, told the committee that transformers are treated as structures under Newton’s zoning and that small site changes often require variance or special‑permit relief. “Transformers vary in size … they’re usually at least a few feet wide,” Kemmett said, noting multiple recent projects where a transformer’s final field placement ended up “0.6 feet within the setback” and therefore required relief.

Representatives from Eversource said equipment siting is driven by safety, accessibility and engineering constraints and that many problems arise when transformer locations are not coordinated early in a project. “We want to work cooperatively with the city of Newton, but we have to place the transformer where it’ll functionally work,” Peter Bowman of Eversource said. Jason Kaminski, the utility’s lead engineer, added that Eversource follows published clearance standards (often called the Blue Book) and that those standards are publicly available; he said the utility can provide the latest guidance to the planning and inspectional services departments.

Councilors pressed the utility and planning staff on several fronts: whether undergrounding is feasible and more costly, how often pad‑mounted transformers require maintenance, whether transformers produce audible noise, and whether screening or design standards could reduce neighborhood impacts. Kaminski said pad‑mounted units are robust and typically require minimal proactive inspection but that access clearances and conduit pathways must be preserved.

Several councilors recommended procedural fixes rather than immediate code changes: earlier, required coordination among developers, Eversource and city staff during the pre‑zoning or site‑plan phase to ensure transformer locations are identified before final building footprints are set. Kemmett and other staff said early flagging of likely transformer locations reduces the need for late‑stage variances.

The committee did not vote to adopt any new setback allowance. The chair moved to hold the docket item for further work, and the committee voted in favor of that motion. Next steps include follow‑up by planning and inspectional services with Eversource on updated Blue Book guidance, and a staff review of formalizing earlier coordination in the development review process.