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A Newton landowner is offering a large undeveloped property to the city for $24M, and the city is looking to bring in a developer, a rare opportunity in the Boston suburb.
Newton is seeking developer proposals to partner with it on a deal for the 15-acre site near Newton South High School, The Boston Globe reported.
The property is zoned for single-family housing, but the city is considering whether it can be used for affordable housing, public open space or schools.
“This approach, which has been used successfully here in Newton and elsewhere, may provide us with an opportunity to achieve both some of the City’s desired outcomes for the property and at the same time partner with a developer to submit a competitive acquisition offer,” Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said in a statement to the Globe.
The sellers, Newton residents Dr. Lois Slovik and Dr. David Slovik, have owned the 13-acre plot since 1979. They also own the two adjacent properties, 85 Dudley Road and 132 Brandeis Road. The couple is working with LandVest Real Estate to represent them in the deal.
In 2003, Newton embarked on a similar deal for Kesseler Woods, 42 acres formerly owned by NSTAR utility company. The city worked with a developer and bought the property for $15M. It shared a third of the cost and preserved half of the land for open space, and it approved 88 housing units, including 12 affordable units, to be built on the other half.
In 2019, the city bought a 15-acre Webster Woods property from Boston College for $15.2M that will also be preserved as open space.
Newton is in the middle of a major zoning redesign of its 12 village centers. The draft of the map came out in October with residents able to attend information sessions on them through December.
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