I am preparing a proposal for the Board of Selectmen to consider at their next meeting to create the "Westwood Pedestrian and Bike Safety Commission." You can read the proposal below and comment if you have suggestions. (see also my report on the workshop and the walkable westwood topic.)  read more »

Last night, the Town of Westwood's Planning Board voted to approve an amendment to the Master Plan Special Permit for Westwood Station. This amendment involved an extensive review and revision of the original Master Plan Special Permit to permit evolutions in the design of Westwood Station which have occurred since the Master Plan was originally approved last year. Now the Planning Board will focus attention on the site plan review as they consider granting Environmental Impact Design Review (EIDR) approval for Phase 1B of the proposed development.

The Planning Board meets again on December 1 at 7:30pm.

Approval of the amendment is a significant step towards final approvals that are necessary to finalize funding and begin the "vertical" construction phase of the project.

Developer presentations related to the approved amendment can be downloaded from the town website here and here.

The more open and transparent our government can be, the better. But I also think we have to ask ourselves what exactly do we want to do with the information we crave. Some is to satisfy curiosity, some is to simply reinforce preconceived notions. But in general, the open access to information helps build trust as people see that their elected officials are not afraid to share the truth.

I think it would great if our elected officials blogged regularly--not necessarily here on this site, but in general, to say, "here is what I did today, these are the issues I'm thinking about..." But being that open will mean that without the support of all the many silent folks in town, you are now open to attack and criticism from the people who make a life out of being upset about everything that might change their lives. The lesson so many have appeared to learn is that the cost to effectiveness is not worth the ideal of openness.

But there is also a question of relevance...do we really need to see all the details of what construction work is going on so that we can determine if the project is meeting our expectations? We need to elect/appoint/entrust others with that responsibility--otherwise nothing will ever be done as the people trying to solve problems are buried in the minutia of responding to everyone's questions about everything. I think we don't have that level of trust and we need to get there somehow.

I posted this on myDedham since it happened in Dedham, but it is ironically relevant to our efforts to create a Pedestrian and Bike Friendly Westwood. This morning, on my way to work in Boston, I crashed into a car in Dedham Square. I am OK...I even managed to catch the train in to work. But more food for thought as we all should heed the advice to "be careful out there!"

Thursday, November 13th, the Westwood Land Trust (WLT) is sponsoring the second annual Capturing Nature in Westwood Art Exhibit to raise awareness and appreciation for Westwood’s beautiful natural environment. "Artists help us to see what’s around us, and the exhibit is a wonderful way for Westwood residents to view nature through artists' eyes," explains Westwood Land Trust President Nancy Dempze. The public is invited to attend a reception to view the exhibit at the Westwood High School theater lobby from 6:30 to 9:00 pm.

Westwood Public Schools art students from a wide variety of grade levels have diligently worked on event submissions as part of their fall art curriculum. Sheehan third graders studied the artist Marc Chagall who believed that "Great art picks up where nature ends." These students combined poetry and artwork based on Chagall's work. At the high school, studio art students "looked closely" at aspects of nature that aren't normally considered beautiful, insects for example, and portrayed their beauty through brilliant pastels. In ceramics, students learned how to make coil pots and produced various vessels decorated with leaves.

Submissions from Westwood residents will also be displayed; over 40 entries were exhibited last year. This year, the work of guest artist Crystal Woodward will also be on display. Ms. Woodward is a professional artist, teacher and land conservationist. She was raised in Belmont, MA, and now lives in France. She is currently in the Boston area teaching the course "Landscape, Art and Visual Language" at The Landscape Institute of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. Ms. Woodward will be at the exhibit to meet with viewers and answer questions about her artwork and conservation activities.

Founded in 1999, the Westwood Land Trust is a charitable organization dedicated to preserving open space, forests, and habitat in Westwood. WLT works cooperatively with landowners who wish to retain their property in its undeveloped state by raising funds to buy development rights from landowners and by receiving and enforcing conservation restrictions on Westwood properties. WLT currently holds conservation restrictions that protect 158 acres of land in Westwood.

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A cross section of residents, along with representatives from the planning and conservation commissions, town engineering/DPW and police department spent Saturday morning walking around the Islington area evaluating ways to improve walkability. The walking audit identified some new issues and gave us an opportunity to talk directly with some of the town people responsible for public safety and infrastructure. The next step will be to ask the Board of Selectmen to appoint a Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Commission comprised of residents from all parts of town as well as departments and commissions.  read more »

This past week, I spoke with a number of people involved in the Westwood Station project. I had heard rumors of difficulty and saw annonymous posts to this site questioning whether the project was in serious jeopardy. There is little new to report as not much has changed:

• Roadwork within the site has stopped because the asphalt companies close down in mid November, so paving will not be done this year, but will resume in the spring.
• Financing of the "going vertical" phase of the project has always been contingent on receiving final approvals from the planning board. The planning board continues to review the amended Master Plan Special Permit. The next meeting of the Planning Board is November 18.
• The Wegmans situation is unchanged as Representative Galvin from Canton continues to refuse to allow the home rule petition to go through during informal session.
• With contructive participation by neighbors, traffic calming plans have been developed for the Canton Everett Forbes area, and just last week, additional fine-tuning designs were approved to solve a specific commercial access problem from Oceana Way.
• The lawsuit filed by Forbes Road residents has been settled privately; no public information is available about the amount of money involved.
• How the economy will affect the project and how significant the
  liquor license issue is for Wegmans--and even how significant Wegmans
  is as an anchor tenant--will remain matters of speculation.

Many things are going on behind the scenes. And while few have access to all the information, it is clear the people involved in making this project happen are "all in" so to speak. I will have more to update here as I confirm more facts, but as near as I can tell, no one feels the challenges facing this project are insurmountable, and the project is in better shape than most development efforts in the region.

Tonight's Board of Selectmen meeting began with a presentation by Urban Engineers about a traffic solution to enable commercial truck traffic to get through Westwood Station to 128/I95 without impact to the Canton Street neighborhoods. The unique arrangement, dubbed the "Westwood T" will channel commercial traffic around and through the development with slight modifications to the traffic design around Canton/University Ave/Oceana.

Selectmen also voted to support the Downey Elementary School's efforts with the Safe Routes to Schools Program. Downey has been participating for over a year now and needed the official support of the town of Westwood to compete for infrastructure grants that could allow improved sidewalks and other measures--at no cost to the town--to make it easier for kids to walk to school.

At the end of the meeting, Selectman considered the upcoming action at Dedham's Town Meeting to vote on creating an adult use overlay district that will abut Westwood. Selectmen and residents expressed great concern that Dedham would be creating a district that could result in strip clubs locating at 400 Blue Hill Ave (the back half of the building is technicaly in Dedham) or in the Allied Drive area that also touches Westwood. Brian at myDedham has started a topic on this where Dedham residents and officials are discussing this in more detail.

I had hoped to write a more thorough analysis of the election, but instead, I want to draw attention to two of the lesser known items on the ballot. (Download a complete sample ballot for Westwood).

Westwood resident Michael Walsh is running as an independent against two incumbents and a 4th challenger for two Norfolk County Commissioner positions. There is also a non-binding question 4 asking whether to abolish the county government. For more information about this race, read the Daily News Transcript article covering the debate between the two challengers, this editorial, and a story about how confident the incumbents feel about being re-elected. The Patriot Ledger has a full profile of all 4 candidates. County government is almost invisible to most of us, but these positions are responsible for "...regional services including land records, vocational education, corrections, Trial Court facilities maintenance, engineering, recreation, regional municipal services, volunteer programs, and additional statutory responsibilities." The county website describes these important services in more detail.

The last position on the ballot is the Blue Hills Regional Technical School Committee. This board is comprised of members elected from each member town in the district...but all voters in the district can vote for all candidates. Westwood has no candidate running, but apparantly there are two write-in campaigns ongoing in town to fill this position. If you know who is running...feel free to comment here! In Braintree, the position is contested and a debate between the two candidates may provide some insight.

The Westwood Newcomers Club was founded in 1994 to provide an opportunity for new residents of Westwood to get to know each other through informal social events sponsored by the club. We are now in our fourteenth year of existence and although our mission is still to help new residents of Westwood connect, we have become so much more! Many of the club’s members have been residents of Westwood for many years and still enjoy participating in our events and meeting new people. We have become a diverse group with a tremendous amount of information and knowledge to share.

The club plans and runs as many as four events each month. These events include family outings such as the fall hayride and pumpkin picking, hiking, holiday parties, spring egg hunts, ice skating and barn baby animals. There are also women’s events such as cooking classes, pottery painting, yoga, and centerpiece arranging. Couples’ events consist of monthly informal socials and our popular wine tasting event. We also organize ongoing book clubs and playgroups. Events are typically hosted by members, however, occasionally we do hold events at other venues.

Membership is open to all residents of Westwood. The club runs from September through June. Annual dues are $35 per family and are applied to the costs of the events we hold. Members receive a bi-annual newsletter and email updates.

The Newcomers Club is run by member volunteers and we are always looking for anyone interested in joining the team. The team meets about 1-2 times a year for planning purposes.

Please visit our website at http://www.westwoodnewcomersclub.com