$2.7M requests for recreation, conservation, protecting our history
UPDATED, April 12: The Board of Selectmen on Momday, April 11, voted unanimously to endorse the Community Preservation Committee’s recommendation to Town Meeting for five projects totaling $1,375,509.
“What a spectacular report,” Selectmen Kevin Greeley said.
The CPA committee pared down requests from nine applications totaling $2,785,987.
Asked how the committee might do things differently next year, Chair Clarissa Rowe said: “We’ll have a real schedule that makes sense.” This year’s schedule involved a great deal or work in too little time.
Here are the recommended project, on which the CPA committee voted March 30:
— Rehabilitation of the Whittemore-Robbins Carriage House, Town of Arlington and Arlington Historical Commission, $289,000, CPC has also contributed $25,000 to this project;
— Robbins Farm Park Field and ADA Renovation Project, Arlington Park and Recreation Commission, $636,749, project will not require Capital budget funding;
— Kimball Farmer House, Housing Corporation of Arlington, $200,000, last construction work before certificate of occupancy;
— Drake Village Windows, Arlington Housing Authority, $200,000, leverages state funds of $2.9 million; and
— Spy Pond Edge Protection and Erosion Control, Arlington Conservation Commission, $49,760, community benefit for pond abutters.
The exact amount of CPA money available is not yet known, but Arlington expects to have an estimated $1.8 million of new funding for fiscal 2017, Clarissa Rowe, committee chair, has said. That money was made possible in November 2014, when 65 percent of town voters turned out and favored the Community Preservation Act by a slim margin.
“We obviously cannot fund all the requests,” she wrote in an email following the Feb. 22 application deadline, and that was indeed the case.
The original nine applications are detailed below.
Taxpayers can get a taste of how the money might be used by reading the original descriptions of the nine applications:
Robbins Farm Park Field and ADA Renovation Project, Park and Recreation Commission: $633,727
Original dog sculpture at Robbins ‘farmhouse.’
The project aims to provide:
— Capital improvements to rehabilitate the Robbins Farm Park baseball field with irrigation, drainage improvements and associated amenities;
— An upgraded multipurpose/sports field (youth soccer/lacrosse/ultimate Frisbee) with new grass turf, drainage and irrigation;
— Americans for Disability Act (ADA) access for the entire Robbins Farm Park site;
— A new multiuse sport/basketball court;
— Accessible site improvements to support a new public display of the historic Robbins farmhouse location with dog statue, described in this 2013 news story; and
— An upgrade of Robbins Farm cooperative/community gardens to provide ADA compliance and more permanent features for a program that began as a pilot program in 2010.
The application tells why the project is needed (a partial list):
4 PUBLIC MEETINGS IN MARCH
Cities and towns that adopt the Community Preservation Act get CPA funds from two sources — a local property-tax surcharge and a yearly distribution from the statewide CPA Trust Fund.
Clarissa Rowe, chair of the town’s Community Preservation Committee, said that, in terms of the state’s match, the town expects about 29- to 30-percent match next year. Last year, the exact match was 29.7 percent, she said.
The state match is from fees for deeds, and those fees go up and down depending on the economy. “Luckily, the governor has already put an additional $10 million into the fund in his budget proposal,” she said.
“As I haven’t read all the proposals yet, I do not know if any of them will be disqualified yet,” she said in late February. “Since we are a new committee, we have asked the statewide Community Preservation Coalition to look at all our proposals, as well, to make sure that they pass muster with the legal requirements of the CPA law.
“The nine members of the Arlington CPC will each be reading the proposals and will be commenting on them” soon.
The Community Preservation Committee has scheduled these meetings:
— Wednesday, March 16, 7 p.m., at Town Hall Annex, second-floor conference room, presentations by project applicants;
— Monday, March 21, 7 p.m., Town Hall Annex, first-floor conference room, presentations by project applicants;
— Monday, March 28, 7 p.m., second-floor conference room, discuss applications and possible vote.
Eric Helmuth of the committee said a further meeting could be scheduled to finalize votes, depending on the March 28 discussion. That will indeed occur March 30.
— The Robbins Farm site does not meet ADA standards for access;
— The playing fields (baseball, soccer, lacrosse, etc.) are inadequate to support the high level of communitywide sports and other recreational activity at this site;
— The proposed upgrades at Robbins Farm were included in a 2002 master plan to serve the needs of the Arlington youth sports organizations plus the townwide cultural, social and educational programs; and
— Robbins Farm Park special-event requests from 2000 to 2015 continue to increase for a variety of public events (July Fourth Celebration, Baseball Night, Astronomy Nights, folk dancing, birthday parties, etc.).
What is the schedule for project implementation, including a timeline for all critical milestones?
— Public hearings/final design/construction documents, fall/winter 2016 to 2017; construction bid, February 2017; and construction, spring/summer 2017.
20 Westminster, Housing Corporation of Arlington: $1,210,000
The project seeks funding under “historic preservation” and “community housing,” as the structure is being redeveloped into 10 units of affordable housing. The project has funding committed of $2,350,000.
20 Westminster has been a tenant-run, church-based child daycare facility, built in 1950 as a house of worship with supplemental religious educational classrooms and offices. The 17,862-square-foot site is a sharply sloping acute wedge of lawn, shrubbery and trees that prominently points eastward into the intersection of Westminster, Lowell Street, Park Avenue, Park Avenue Extension and Bow Street.
The lower two floors are leased to a church-based child day care, and the top floor is leased jointly to the Arlington and Belmont high schools as an exercise room for their crew teams.
The proposed conversion to an affordable-housing apartment building would reclassify the site as an R-2 residential-use classification. As a house of worship, it has always been a nonconforming use within an Arlington R1 Single-Family Zoning District, and as an apartment building it would be reclassified as an Arlington R5 Apartment District – Low Density. Of note:
— Project is a “friendly” 40B (760 CMR 56.00 – Massachusetts General Law C.40B Comprehensive Permit Projects);
— No elevator(s) required;
— Heating and cooling will be provided by an air-source split system heat pump located within each unit; and
— Short of building a garage, parking on site, despite its size, will most likely not be able to be made to conform to the number required in the Arlington Zoning bylaw because of its steep topography.
Funds: Town CDBG, $750,000; Brookline Bank, $650,000; NSC, $950,000; CPA, $1,210,000.
Total: $2,960,000
Kimball Farmer House, Housing Corporation of Arlington: $200,000 (total project cost: $1,437,143)
The goals of the acquisition and redevelopment of the historic house at Forest and Mass. Ave. are:
— To add three units to the deed-restricted affordable-housing stock in the Arlington in an effort to reach the 10-percent level of affordable units;
— To restore a historic house built by one of Arlington’s founding families;
— To adhere to, support and further the goals of the town master plan; and
— To increase the number of residential wheelchair-accessible rental units in town.
Community support: The owner of the next-door historic building, attorney Robert Annese, backs HCA’s efforts, and Richard Duffy, unofficial town historian, as well as the Arlington Historic Commission approves the project.
The Housing Corporation of Arlington (HCA) purchased 1173 Mass. Ave. in September 2014. The property on the National Historic Register was a single-family house. The original structure was built around 1826, with an ell addition in the rear built later.
In recent years the building was used as a commercial office fronting Mass. Ave. and a two-bedroom, townhouse-type residential dwelling unit in the rear. The zoning is B-1. That allows for up to three residential units with a special permit, which was granted Nov. 14, 2014.
HCA plans to rehabilitate the project into three individual units: one two-bedroom, townhouse-type unit in the rear and two one-bedroom units fronting Mass. Ave. The unit on the first floor will be wheelchair accessible with rear ramp and front-sloping walk. Bathrooms, kitchens and doorways will be accessible.
The roof is new, as are the gas-fired furnaces and air-conditioning condensers. Three new kitchens, bathrooms and the associated plumbing installed will be installed. The building will be deleaded and the walls reconfigured to open new doorways and to close other access points on the interior.
The walls in the units fronting Mass. Ave. has some of the original woodwork, which will be preserved or copied and replaced.
The acquisition price is $595,000. The redevelopment budget is estimated at $1,437,143. HCA has the following bank commitments and other sources:
Leader Bank, first mortgage, $350,000, 3.25 percent, 20 years; Federal Home Loan Bank, $100,000 grant and interest writedown to 3.5 percent, 20 years; North Suburban Consortium, $430,000 deferred loan, 0 percent, 30 years; Town of Arlington, $190,000, CDBG funds; Community Preservation Committee, $200,000 requested; $100,000, state historic credits, Mass. Historical Commission; Brookline Bank, buy state credits, $91,000. HCA is to provide the remaining funds.
Timeline: Construction completion is expected by June 2016. Occupancy is anticipated for September.
Menotomy Manor Life and Skills Building and Drake Village, Arlington Housing Authority: $350,000
The Arlington Housing Authority requests the funds to leverage $2,919,965 from the Department of Housing and Community Development’s High Leverage Asset Preservation Program as well as $550,000 in prior CDBG funding. The funds will be used to build the project at Menotomy Manor as well as preserve the Hauser Building as supportive housing at Drake Village.
The programs currently operating in Menotomy Manor are: Operation Success, an evening homework program and sponsor of cultural events. The Arlington Boys’ & Girls’ Club and Fidelity House run after-school and summer day programs and the St. Vincent DePaul Society provides a free clothing program.
These programs have been operating in two separate three-bedroom units in Menotomy Manor for many years. Program participation continues to increase every year, and all programs are targeted at low – and extremely low-income families. The Life and Skills Center would offer larger, more efficient space for current programs and allowing for additional ones. These might include classes in banking, finance, computers, job search, with the goal of making families self-sufficient.
Also envisioned is space for the Arlington Food Pantry and speaker forums.
The new life and skills Center would also house the present substation of the Arlington Police Department and the Arlington Housing Authority on-site Management office.
A key aspect of this proposal would allow the authority to use the two three-bedroom units used for the above-mentioned programs for housing for low-income families. The authority has a long waiting list for Arlington Families in need of housing.
The Drake Village Supportive Housing Initiative was begun in 2013, when the AHA applied for High Leverage Asset Preservation Program funding through the state. Funding was awarded based on the town’s commitment of CDBG funds for The Drake Village supportive housing and the new Life and Skill Building at Menotomy Manor.
The total development cost of both these projects is $3,795,500.
Schematic Design Report for the kitchen and bath renovations, window replacement and miscellaneous upgrades at Hauser Apartment Building, 667-4 37 Drake Road
Feb. 10, 2016, report by Elton + Hampton Architects, Boston:
• Replacement of existing windows with new energy-efficient windows (including sills where needed) that are easy to operate and maintain;
• Complete renovations of bathrooms, including replacement of tubs with step-in showers;
• Complete renovation of kitchens, designed to improve their suitability for elderly use;
• Installation of updated smoke detection system; and
• Addition of a computer “lab” for resident use.
At the Dec. 9 meeting, Bob Cronin shared one year’s worth (Jan. 1 through Dec. 2, 2015) of work orders recorded for Hauser. The items focused on were related to windows, heating and plumbing.
Stabilization of the Whittemore-Robbins Carriage House, Town of Arlington: $177,500
The aim is to forestall further deterioration and stabilize the historic building, a property listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Properties, as an individual site and as part of the Arlington Center Historic District.
A circa 1890 photograph of the Whittemore-Robbins estate shows the Carriage House directly behind the 1804 house and near the Whittemore-Robbins Cottage, consists of a three-bay, two-level, older main block with a two-bay, single-level addition on the east side.
Currently, the ground level of the building stores chairs, tables, awnings and other items that support the public use and rental functions of the adjacent Whittemore-Robbins House and the Town Hall Gardens. The Carriage House supports a revenue-producing function.
The Whittemore-Robbins mansion exhibits the scale, proportion, dignity and decoration of the highest Federal-style architecture. The house, with the Carriage House and Cottage, represents one of the few intact estates that were built in Arlington during the 1800s. The complex is a visual reminder of both the commercial prosperity of early Arlington and the critical role that the Robbins family played in the development of a civic center for Arlington.
In Walker’s 1889 atlas of Middlesex County, the barn and carriage house are specifically depicted in about the same relative position and distance from the Whittemore-Robbins house today — except that in 1889, the house stood where the Robbins Library is situated now. When both structures were moved, the mansion and its principal outbuildings were rotated 90 degrees and the ensemble of dwelling, Cottage and barn/garage remained intact.
Thus, the Carriage House was not built new when the house was moved in 1890. The fact that the Carriage House was moved when the house was relocated gives it much greater historical value.
Over the years, the Carriage House was expanded and modified to become a garage for the Robbins sisters’ car and a residence for their chauffeur, on the second story.
However, a lack of maintenance has resulted in significant deterioration of this historic property.
There are three community needs for this project: 1) stabilization of the historic structure; 2) public safety; and 3) improvement of the aesthetics of the area.
The Whittemore-Robbins House, along with the Carriage House and Cottage, represents some of the earliest Arlington buildings on the Civic Block and one of a few remaining intact estates. Caira Robbins (1866-1939) and her sister, Ida, gave the house and the two out buildings to the town in 1931. When Ida died in 1947, she left the bulk of her estate to the town. Arlington has lost most of its barns/carriage houses, and therefore, should aspire to preserve the important remnants of its history. The buildings donated to the Town by the Robbins family should be a priority.
Given the level of deterioration of the structure, there is significant concern regarding the continued use of the space. Immediately adjacent to the structure is a small playground frequented by young children. It is in the Town’s interest to stabilize the building to protect both the public and employees and contractors using the space.
Timeline in 2016: cost estimate, March; appropriation of funds, July; request for bids, July; contractor selection, September; approval of work plan, October; completion, December.
Budget: structural assessment, $145,500; windows and doors, $32,000; total, $177,500.
Town of Arlington Historic Assessment of Municipal Buildings, Historical Commission: $110,000
The Town of Arlington has more than 35 municipal buildings. This study aims to look at 22 municipal buildings, including two current schools, Arlington High School and Hardy School. The buildings were built between 1799 and 1940. Most were built to support city services and civic life in Arlington, but a significant number of the oldest structures bear witness to important events and eras in the town’s history.
The project will be a supplement to the work of the Arlington Facilities Department and the Permanent Town Building Committee, allowing an historic assessment of municipal buildings to develop long-range capital plans that protect the town’s historic structures. The work will include the identification and documentation of historic building features, recommended approaches to preservation and facility reuse, and cost estimates for recommended approaches.
This application is for the funding to hire a consultant with expertise in architectural preservation, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings.
The scope of the work includes an investigation into the original building drawings and any previous historic studies, a detailed survey for each building and a plan for preservation work.
The goal of this work is to optimize sustainability, accessibility and utility of these important historical assets while documenting, preserving and maintaining their unique historic character and extending their useful life.
This project will identify and document the condition and needs of historic municipal buildings in the Town of Arlington and will help the Town set priorities for long-term funding planning.
This project supports the recommendation in the town’s master plan, adopted in 2015, to preserve town-owned historic resources and to meet the ongoing capacity of the town to implement the master plan by preparing “a maintenance and management plan to support preservation of civic buildings and historic resources.” (p. 183)
The consultant will produce a report and that includes the survey data for each building and a plan and database that includes the identification and documentation of historic building features, recommended approaches to preservation and facility reuse, and cost estimates for recommended approaches.
This expected project timeline (11 months): Establish project team (one month), prepare RFP to select consultant (one month), Select consultant (one month), provide access to town building records for scanning and reproducing (one month), coordination with Facilities Department for building walkthroughs and discussions of data collection and documentation (two months), testing of any materials identified by the consultant (two months). Draft report (one month), discussions of the draft report with the project team and relevant stakeholders (two months), review final report/database (one month).
Spy Pond Edge Protection and Erosion Control, Conservation Commission: $49,760
The funds are for a feasibility study and detailed survey associated with preserving four town-owned parcels of failed shoreline along Spy Pond, a
103-acre kettle-hole pond in the Mystic River Watershed. The town-owned parcels that have been identified as needing preservation and long-term protection include:
— Spy Pond Park shoreline;
— Scannell Field shoreline;
— Arlington Boys’ & Girls’ Club shoreline; and
— Spring Valley Street shoreline.
Shoreline erosion in these areas has resulted from high recreational pressure, stormwater inputs from overland flow and wave/ice action.
Spy Pond Park is on the North Shore of Spy Pond between Pond Lane and Linwood Street and is the main public access point to the pond. The heavily used park has a playground, public boat ramp, picnic area and access to the adjacent Minuteman Bike Path.
Other publicly owned parcels of land around Spy Pond are at the end of Wellington Street near the Boys’ & Girls Club (60 Pond Lane), from the edge of Scannell Field at Linwood Circle to the Spy Pond Condominiums and a small parcel of land at the end of Spring Valley Street on the West Shore of Spy Pond.
The primary goals of this project include preserving the existing riparian shoreline and improving the quality of stormwater entering Spy Pond from town-owned parcels. Additional benefits associated with meeting these goals include:
• Enhanced and diverse habitat
• Reduced erosion and sedimentation
• Controlled and strengthened access
• Stakeholder engagement and public education
In spring 2013, Conservation Commission members noticed that the shoreline edge along Spy Pond was deteriorating and that there was the potential for long-term failure near public open space. The commission invited those who care for and maintain Spy Pond Park, such as the Friends of Spy Pond Park, to discuss ways to enhance, protect and further stabilize the shoreline.
Since then, the commission has also met with the town’s DPW director, the town engineer and a representative from the Mystic River Watershed Association to address the shoreline failure and outline an approach for future preservation.
Furthermore, the town master plan identifies the public health and ecologic benefits of open spaces in Arlington, including Spy Pond.
Historic Preservation of the Jason Russell House, Historical Society: $35,000
This project has two main elements — urgently needed historic preservation of the Jason Russell House and an architectural/engineering study to determine how to stabilize the structure of the Revolutionary era home at Mass. Ave. and Jason.
Preservation entails replacing fascia, soffit, gutters and clapboards that have been compromised because of weather and rot. In addition, bricks in the central chimney are loose, and the entire chimney needs to be rebuilt. Last, mortar in the fieldstone foundation is crumbling and needs to be replaced.
A report from the engineering firm of Simpson, Gumpertz and Heger describes its findings about the Jason Russell House and some plans on how to remediate the sill and foundation issues and suggestions for future work.
Why is the project needed?
Jason Russell is one of the historic treasures of Arlington. Very few other towns in the U.S. have a structure that played a direct role in the earliest days of the American Revolution and is still standing today. Structures this old require careful restoration.
The home is identified in the town master plan as an important historical resource.
What is the nature and level of support for this project?
The Arlington Historical Society, which owns and operates Jason Russell, has an active membership list of about 220 members, the majority of whom are town residents. The society maintains an active presence in the community with guided tours of the home for all third graders in the town’s public and parochial schools.
In 2015, Jason Russell hosted more than 507 visitors and conducted more than 130 tours. The society has also hosted Minutemen reenactments of the events of
April 1775 on the lawn of the home.
Timeline: Preservation work on the gutters, chimney and foundation could start in the third quarter this year and completed by the end of the fourth quarter.
Funding of New Roof for Historic Preservation of the Old Schwamb Mill Barn, Schwamb Mill Trust: $20,000
October 2013 first draft, Prepared by John V. Goff, M. Arch. d/b/a Historic Preservation & Design, Salem.
“The Old Schwamb Mill” is the name commonly used to refer to three historic industrial mill buildings that are situated closely together on the parcel numbered as 17 Mill Lane in Arlington. The property here has long been promoted as:
— The nation’s oldest continuously operating mill site; and
— A property listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1971. The three buildings are commonly called
* The Mill (or the Picture Frame Mill): It is roughly C-shaped or U-shaped in plan, and comprises a timber framed main mill building with two additions on the south side, that creates a pleasant south-facing courtyard;
* The Barn (shown at left): located west of the Mill: It is a timber framed structure with a roof ridge that roughly points north-south;
* The Dry Shed: It is located west of the mill and south of the Barn, and in truth contains two joined buildings: a brick rear or west part, and a timber framed front east part.
On Thursday, October 24, 2013, architect John Goff with Historic Preservation & Design of Salem inspected the condition of the weather envelope for both Outbuildings (the Barn and the Dry Shed). Many photographs and notes were taken, and organized in the report that follows to inventory the most major problems, and to suggest appropriate remediation methods and procedures.
Base map(s) or site plans from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) drawings, archived with the Library of Congress, were marked up and altered to help provide orientation, and to communicate the extent of area(s) where repairs and restoration are now needed. Varieties of issues show up, and they go beyond the roof.
COMMUNITY PRESERVATION ACT OVERVIEW
Part 1: Differing viewpoints among officials roil Community Preservation Act discussion
Part 2: ANALYSIS: A war of words around Community Preservation Act finances
Part 3: What Community Preservation Act could help pay
Part 4: YourArlington series on Community Preservation Act
This story was published Friday, March 4, 2016, and updated April 12, to updatecopy and headline.
