Preserving open space prevails
The woods off Summer Summer Street called Hill's Hill, discouraged as a
possible location for a dog run, is no longer under consideration for a
new fire station after the town's Parks and Recreation Commission voted
unanimously not to give up the open space as an option for
the Fire Department. Marvin Lewiton, a Town Meeting member who is a member of its Fire
Station Committee,wrote in an e-mail: "It would appear at this
point that we will be retaining Highland and Central Stations in their
existing locations."
The fire station panel previously evaluated all of the potential sites on which a new station could be located and had concluded that the Hill's Hill site was the "only really viable site," he wrote Jan. 22.
The subcommittee's parameters included the minimum size plot on which a new station could be built, as well as a location that would provide better response time to the part of town near the Winchester border and wouldn't diminishing the response to the areas currently covered by Highland Station, he wrote.
He noted that the Fire Station Committee had not met since the Jan. 10 recreation panel vote.
In a follow-up e-mail Feb. 1, he wrote:
"We looked at every site in town that had a minimum lot size [greater than 20,000 square feet], which we considered to be the minimum size that would allow for replacing Highland Station with a three-bay station.
"From there, we narrowed the list to those sites that would permit faster response to that part of town that we considered to have less than optimal response times, while at the same time not compromising the existing response times to the area currently served by Highland.
"As an example, the lot at the intersection of Summer and Cutter Hill was too far east, and also too close to the Central Station.
"At that point, it was a matter of figuring out if there were other considerations we needed to look at. The town yard had earlier been suggested by some non-committee folks, but the restrictions on breaking the barrier covering the contaminated area (part of the AHS remediation project),along with the configuration of the existing buildings precluded that lot.
"We were just looking at sites -- the overall project cost was not part of our mandate. I'd imagine that this would probably something that would have been addressed by the Capital Planning Committee, but that's just a guess on my part."
Leslie Mayer, chairmen of the Parks and Recreation Commission, confirmed the January vote regarding Hill's Hill and provided this background:
She wrote that members of the Fire Station Study Committee came to the Park & Rec Commission meeting in March '07 and again in December '07 to discuss the possibility of using a portion of Hill's Hill for the purpose of building a fire station. Since Hill's Hill is protected parkland under the jurisdiction of the Park & Rec Commission, any change of use requires a unanimous vote of the Park & Rec Commission (along with other votes, see
this article) to dispose of the land for another use.
At the January meeting, a motion to dispose of the land was made and unanimously opposed by all members, Mayer wrote. Assistant Town Manager Nancy Galkowski, representing the Fire Station Study Committee, was present for the vote, she wrote.
"Feedback obtained during the process to update Arlington's Open Space Plan indicates that the community values the town's public open spaces and is concerned about the loss of open space," she wrote. "Arlington has very limited natural areas and recreational land. The commission actively supports the plan to preserve, protect and enhance Arlington's limited open spaces and recognizes that once a piece of parkland is developed and built."
Jeanne Leary, co-chair of the Summer Street Neighborhood Association, responded in January:
"We appreciate all of the Parks & Recreation Commission's hard work and dedication to our neighborhood. SSNA works very closely with this Commission as the Summer Street recreation areas host over 70% of the Town's recreational activities. We continue to work closely with this commission and we greatly appreciate all of their help with a multitude of issues over the past two years."
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Enuma Elish
performs "Metropolis" Thursday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m. at the Regent
Theater. General admission...
