Panera Bread OK'd for Newton Centre

By James O'Brien, Globe Correspondent

NEWTON — It looks like a Panera Bread restaurant will be coming to Newton after all. The Board of Aldermen, by a 23-to-1 vote Monday night, cleared the way for the popular restaurant to gain the necessary permits to move into Newton Centre, despite some heated opposition. The proposal to open a 105-seat restaurant on Centre Street had raised hackles among cafe owners and other local businesses. Some said a Panera would add to traffic congestion, while others said it would threaten Newton Centre's village identity. Monday night’s vote in favor of Panera followed a series of concessions by the developer — which includes Panera and several partners — on both seating and parking, plus a series of promised improvements to the business district. The project would include approximately 66 interior seats, and about 39 more divided between an indoor and an outdoor seasonal section, an overall reduction of six seats from the plan’s previous 111. The aldermen waived a required 23 parking spaces, based on the reduced seating. Panera will not add any spaces to the area. The improvements are set to include a new traffic light, better handicap access, and village-green improvements. The total value of the improvements is estimated to be between $65,000 and $70,000, developers said. One opponent of the project was Ellen Kaplansky, co-owner of Pie Bakery and Café, around the corner on Beacon Street. ‘‘I sort of feel like I’ve been sold a bill of goods,’’ Kaplansky said prior to the meeting. ‘‘When these larger places open up here they are going to snuff out smaller places. Not because they sell sandwiches and I sell sandwiches, but because there’s not going to be enough parking and too much congestion.’’ The size of project, however, is smaller than the typical café the company would build, said Gregg Godfrey, a joint venture partner with Panera. Other Paneras that Godfrey has worked on have 125 to 140 interior seats. Victoria Danberg, Ward 6 alderman, said she sympathized with small business owners who struggle with limited seating, their expansion tied to parking spaces they cannot feasibly add to Newton Centre. "The entire zoning code needs to be redone," she said before the meeting. "We're overdue for a complete examination and rewrite. And that rewrite should include the ability for restaurants to not be so burdened by requirements for onsite parking." In the meantime, Danberg said, she and several aldermen have filed a new proposal to allow added outdoor seats at town restaurants in the summertime, without special permits or reduction of indoor seating. The aldermen's vote Monday night removes all obstacles to the Panera project, Danberg said. James O'Brien can be reached at james@jamesobrien.cc.