Marty Walz

A hearing is scheduled for the "Anti-Shadow Bill," Bill H.826, as submitted by Marty Walz and Byron Rushing. Set for Thursday, May 9, the public hearing for comments and input will be at 10:00am in State House Room A-1.

The bill has been criticized for its potential harm to development in the city through the addition of restrictions on new developments. Bill H.286 proposes that new buildings which are seeking a variance from local zoning codes will not be allowed to be constructed in a manner which casts a shadow on several public spaces. These spaces include Copley Square, Commonwealth Ave Mall, and Magazine Beach, among others.

The Globe reports state Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) is resigning to become CEO of Mass. Planned Parenthood.

Gin Dumcius tweets that state Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) is filing legislation that would bar city and town clerks from making any money from performing marriages either during work time or in their offices even after hours.

Gee, what did a former city councilor expected to become Boston city clerk tomorrow do to annoy Walz so much that she not only files legislation but issues a press release that ends like this?

The Boston City Council is expected to select a new City Clerk on Wednesday, December 21. "I am announcing this legislation today so the new clerk knows that the days of using the Clerk's office as a private for-profit wedding chapel are numbered," Rep. Walz concluded.

Restaurant owner Joe Cimino asked the Boston Licensing Board today for six to nine more months to get his Saratoga restaurant at 41 Fairfield open, but state Rep. Marty Walz told the board enough's enough and it's time to let somebody else have a crack at the restaurant's license.

Walz said it's unfortunate Cimino has run into a never-ending series of problems related to the building's age, historic nature and simple existence in the Back Bay - from wiring to handicap access to groundwater concerns - but said the six years he's had, coupled with the six years she says the previous owner didn't use the license, has exhausted the neighborhood's and the board's patience.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports several state reps are shepherding an "emergency" bill that would, immediately on passage, let Boston and other communities ban overnight commercial trash pickups. Legislators consider the ide at a hearing on Oct. 18 at the State House, Room A-1, starting at 10 a.m.

The proposal, backed by, among others, Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) and Aaron Michlewitz, would dovetail with an effort by city councilors Felix Arroyo and Mike Ross to limit commercial pickups because of noise complaints in neighborhoods such as the North End, downtown and the Back Bay. Current state law prohibits such bans.

On the one hand, you have Back Bay nagtivists who haven't liked anything proposed for their neighborhood since 1871. On the other hand, you have a developer telling them they have to put up with a design totally at odds with the surrounding architecture, unless they want "a cartoon" of a building. At issue: What should replace the old WEIU building on Boylston Street.

Jay Fitzgerald ponders the role in all this of state Rep. Marty Walz, who is torn between the Scylla of outraged constituents and the Charybdis of monied developers.