Brian Yates
Alderman-at-Large, Ward 5
City of Newton, MA
Comprehensive Planning
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I am proud to have
led the Aldermanic adoption process of the Newton Comprehensive Plan in 2007
after thorough review and careful amendments by the Zoning and Planning
Committee that I chaired. The Plan includes a section on Historic
Preservation “Planning with and for History” that I helped to develop as a
Member of the Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee and restates the
“Charleston Principles of Historic Preservation that I had included in the
former version of the Plan twenty years ago.
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The "Planning for
and with History" section would make the preservation and celebration of the
history of the city a positive part of public policy.
This is something I have worked for throughout my career as an activist
and an official. I first got the Charleston Principles of Historic
Preservation endorsed as part of the previous Plan in 1992, and I am delighted
to see them re-emphasized in the new Plan. Since I found the grave of my Great
Grandfather's Great Grandfather, Lieutenant Samuel Richardson, in the
Revolutionary War section of the South Burying Ground, I've become even more
interested in the history of the city where my family has lived for at least
six Generations.
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Mayor Cohen
appointed two successive committees, chaired by nationally known planner and
Newton resident Phil Herr, to update the city's Comprehensive Plan, which was
last revised in the late 1980s. After years of work, the first committee
submitted the “Framework for Planning” to the Board of Aldermen. Under my
leadership, the Zoning and Planning Committee added explicit references to the
value of Village Centers and the losses caused by closing of Village Schools
and Branch Libraries. We also attached to the Framework a request that an
Historic Preservation element of the final plan be completed as soon as
possible.
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As the second phase
of the process began, the Mayor appointed me to the Comprehensive Planning
Advisory Committee, also chaired by Phillip Herr in a second demonstration of
extremely generous community service.
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The
Comprehensive Plan is available at
http://www.ci.newton.Ma.us/Planning/docs/2008-comp-plan.pdf
This page last updated on
Saturday October 03, 2009
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