The Urban Design Commission is committed to the preservation, improvement, and development of the City's physical environment, and implements this by:

• Conducting studies of urban design or beautification programs, techniques and methods currently used in Newton and elsewhere and making recommendations to responsible city agencies on the implementation of such programs;
• Conducting periodic meetings and seminars for interested private and public groups;
• Giving advice, upon request of the mayor, director of planning and development, the board of aldermen, the planning and development board, or the school committee, upon specific matters affecting urban design and beautification;
• Advising the parks and recreation commissioner and the public works commissioner in the carrying out of their responsibilities;
• Studying the availability of public and private sources of funding for urban design and beautification programs and projects; and
• Performing other such functions as may be delegated to it by ordinance.

Sign Administration

All signs must be reviewed before they are installed on any building in the City. The City's sign regulations can be found in Section 5.2 Signs of the City's Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 30). The maximum allowable sign are depends on the type of sign, establishment use, and underlying zoning district.

The proposed sign is then reviewed by the Urban Design Commission, usually within two weeks, which issues advisory comments to the Planning and Development Department. A recommendation is then sent to the Commissioner of Inspectional Services who then may issue the building permit for the sign. For information regarding pre-application reviews of potential sign permit applications or fence appeals, please contact the staff liaison listed above.

 SIGN PERMIT & FENCE APPEAL APPLICATION FILING INSTRUCTIONS

1. Application must be received by noon two weeks prior to the public hearing the applicant wishes to attend.

2. Applicants must use the NewGov “storefront” (https://newtonma.viewpointcloud.com/) to submit applications.

3. Once an application is submitted, the application and materials will be reviewed by Urban Designer for completeness. If additional materials are requested, we will let you know know via NewGov or email. After the application is judged to be complete, the applicant will be notified of the Urban Design Commission (UDC) public hearing date and details.

4. Applicant must attend the Urban Design Commission meeting.

5. UDC provides a recommendation to the applicant and the Commissioner of Inspectional Services at the UDC meeting. The recommendation letter will be sent by Urban Designer via NewGov after the meeting.

6. After receiving the recommendation letter, the applicant applies to the Inspectional Services Department (ISD) for a Building Permit accompanied by all the supporting documents via NewGov and the fees. Please check with ISD regarding the cost of the permit and how to submit the fees.

Meeting Date & Application Deadlines

The Urban Design Commission meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month (subject to change) at 7:00 p.m. (Applicants will be notified via email as to the location prior to the meeting). In order to be included on an upcoming meeting agenda, a complete application must be submitted by noon on the deadline date specified below online. To submit an application, please click https://newtonma.viewpointcloud.com/ 

2024 Deadlines and Meeting Dates

See information regarding upcoming meetings here.

Rules & Regulations

The Urban Design Commission is an appointed body with members from throughout the City, and when possible has members from the eight wards of the City. While the primary responsibility of the Commission is in an advisory capacity, it also acts is a judicial capacity in its review of fence permit appeals. As such, the Commission has adopted the following Rules & Regulations to guide and inform their interpretation and decision-making duties.

• Urban Design Commission Rules & Regulations, adopted September 17, 2014

Free viewers are required for some of the attached documents.
They can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below.

Acrobat Reader Windows Media Player Word Viewer Excel Viewer PowerPoint Viewer