City Council in brief: City considers buying building beside library as part of redesign

The current owner of 14–16 Spring St., which abuts the Waltham Public Library, has expressed interest in selling the building to Waltham as part of the ongoing library renovation.

This is according to Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy, who introduced the matter to the City Council in a late-filed item at its Monday meeting. Councilors sent further discussion about the real estate matter and a potential site view to its Committee of the Whole meeting next week.

The library has been planning a major expansion to its current building since Waltham received a state grant from the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program in January 2025. The architectural firm planning the renovation presented preliminary designs for the new space to councilors in December. 

At the December meeting, councilors asked if the library could potentially expand into 14-16 Spring St. in order to preserve existing parking at the site, but were told the city had no rights to the neighboring building. “On paper, that sounds great, but… we’re trying to work, obviously, within the land that we have,” library director Kelly Linehan said at the time.

The council approved projected costs totalling up to $79 million for current library renovation plans at its Committee of the Whole meeting last week.

Parking data creates friction

At the meeting, Councilor-at-Large Colleen Bradley-MacArthur also presented the council with parking and traffic data and guidelines for residential planning, especially around multifamily housing developments. This data came from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a public agency that studies regional design and advises municipal planners around Greater Boston.

She sent the council a presentation stating that residential developers often overestimate parking needs and that units in multifamily buildings often generate less traffic than single-family houses. It suggested cities reduce parking regulations based on MAPC’s Perfect Fit Parking study and adapt their streets to make space for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.

Bradley-MacArthur emphasized that Waltham is already a “somewhat walkable” community, and suggested the city should work on producing housing and improving walkability for residents. 

The council agreed to send these MAPC guidelines to the Traffic Commission, Planning Department and Zoning Board of Appeals, as well as to CommunityScale, the company overseeing Waltham’s ongoing zoning code review. Bradley-MacArthur also requested that an official from the MAPC attend a future Committee of the Whole meeting to present the data in more detail.

Ward 7 Councilor Paul S. Katz objected to this motion on the grounds that councilors spend too much meeting time hearing presentations from outside groups. “There’s a pattern of bringing in… organizations that I think is wasting our time on council,” he said.

Katz clarified that he did not object to the MAPC data, although he claimed the two Waltham locations the MAPC studied in the Perfect Fit study didn’t paint a full picture of Waltham’s multifamily housing stock. He argued that councilors should be gathering this information on their own time and using City Council meetings for crafting legislation.

Bradley-MacArthur’s motion passed with only Katz voting against it.

Additionally, the City Council:

• Approved $108,500.47 in equipment costs for the Waltham Community Access Channel.
• Approved business from last week’s committee meetings.
• Entertained a resolution by Council President and Ward 9 Councilor Robert G. Logan to revitalize and dedicate a small park at the corner of Moody and High streets that contains a monument to Waltham veteran, author and city worker James J. Fahey. Logan said the area is colloquially referred to as James J. Fahey Park, and asked the council to officially name the park after Fahey and put up a more permanent monument.
  Ward 8 Councilor Cathyann Harris suggested the council consider revitalizing other monuments around Waltham. The matter was sent to the Veterans Services Committee.
• Forwarded a number of requests by McCarthy to its committee meetings next week. It sent a request for additional over-budget costs of $1,296,507 from the Department of Public Works from this winter’s snowstorms and a number of donations for the City Hall Museum Room to the Finance Committee. It sent deliberations on license agreements for three community farms to the Committee of the Whole.
• Forwarded three secondhand shop license renewals and one outdoor dining license to next week’s Licenses and Franchises Committee meeting.