Newton Awarded Grants For Pettee Square, Auburndale Affordable Housing

NEWTON, MA — The City of Newton has received two large state funding grants to move forward with improvements to Pettee Square in Upper Falls and take the next steps toward providing affordable housing at the Walker Center in Auburndale, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said Thursday.

According to Secretary of Housing & Economic Development Mike Kennealy, Newton will receive $2 million from the MassWorks Infrastructure Program to improve the look, function, accessibility, and safety of Pettee Square, which located at the intersection of Chestnut and Oak Streets.

Fuller has also set aside approximately $1.1 million from ARPA to match those funds.

The grant comes after the city completed the Greenway project, which transformed an old rail line into a walkway trail. In addition, almost a billion dollars of private investment from Northland is moving forward for housing, restaurants, shops, offices and a splash park on 22.6 acres at Needham and Oak Streets.

"The work in Pettee Square is exciting,” Fuller said. "It includes a raised table intersection and cross walks, traffic signal replacements, utility pole relocations, roadway milling and new paving, new concrete sidewalks, new ADA accessible curb cut ramps, upgrades to the drainage system, new pavement marking, lighting upgrades, benches and trees.”

Fuller said the work will improve the safety of the intersections for bicyclists and pedestrians and make the area more beautiful and inviting for businesses and visitors.

Newton will also receive $235,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Housing & Community Development to begin the process of creating affordable housing in Auburndale.

Last October, the city purchased a portion of the Walker Center for Ecumenical Exchange, which is directly adjacent to the Williams Elementary School and its playground and ballfield. The purchase also includes four existing homes that will allow the city to provide permanently affordable housing in the area.

"The four houses total about 7,400 square feet and currently have 14 bedrooms,” Fuller said. "The affordable housing will be next to the Williams Elementary School and the playground, in walking distance to three forms of mass transit, and nestled into a wonderful residential neighborhood."

Fuller said the funding will be used to begin the process of analyzing how to best design and finance the affordable units.