Waltham Buys Field Station Property From UMass For $17.4 Million

WALTHAM, MA — The city council approved Mayor Jeannette McCarthy's agreement to buy the southern portion of the UMass Field Station on Beaver Street, Monday for $17.4 million.

Last year the council voted to use $14 million in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding to buy the property, and then this week approved an additional $3.4 million to buy 28 acres of the 58 acre property that is home to some seven tenants.

"A year ago, the survival of the Field Station was in doubt," said State Sen. Mike Barrett in a statement to Patch. "The nonprofit tenants, all involved with healthy eating, sustainable local agriculture, and what you might call food justice, faced eviction. But the Greater Waltham community rallied. Residents demanded that the farm be preserved and the tenants be protected. This week, thanks to the Mayor, the City Council, and the tenants for working together, we took a giant stride forward."

Barrett and Rep. Lawn will work to get "some enabling legislation," passed on the state level, according to the senator.

Earlier the futures of tenants on the property, including Waltham Fields Community Farm and the Waltham Land Trust, were up in the air when UMass, the former property owner asked them to leave. It's not clear what will happen to the other half of the property.

But the tenants on the city's portion will be able to renegotiate new leases with the city once the final steps are in place, according to the city.

Last April the council approved the mayor's request for the city to sign a Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Waltham and UMass that would halt any development with the UMass Field Station, while negotiations continued. Last November the city council approved the CPA funds with the idea that the city would be able to purchase the entire property and then waited for the rest of the negotiations.

The Waltham Field Station at 240 Beaver Street is by far the largest of the three existing farms in the city, and is known to have the best soils available in the city, if not the entire Metrowest region.

Tenants were put on notice two winters ago that they may be evicted because of a lack of action on the promised state bond bill that would fund the university's effort to build a Sustainability Education Center on the site, and left the university scrambling for solutions for the costly and aging infrastructure on the site.

Since then things have changed through advocacy.

Waltham Land Trust, a tenant of the site, along with a dozen other non-profits, educational programs and non-profit community groups, including Waltham Fields Community Farm, Boston Area Gleaners, Green Rows of Waltham Community Gardens, Grow Native Massachusetts, Mass Federation of Farmers Markets, Boston Area Climate Experiment and Massachusetts 4-H have played a large part in imploring residents to help save the land.

Community Preservation Act funds are taxpayer dollars set aside to go toward project dedicated to preserving open space, historic resources, development of affordable housing, and the acquisition and development of outdoor recreational facilities.

Read more:

• Field Station, UMass Land Sale Closer To Reality
• Waltham Citizen Organizes Petition To Save Waltham Fields Farm
• Councilor To Host Meeting On Waltham Community Fields Farm
• Waltham Field Station Tenants Share Concerns
• Council OKs Mayor's Request On UMass Waltham Fields ...

RELATED:

• Waltham UMass Field Station - Waltham Land Trust Statement
• UMass Amherst Proposes Center for Urban Sustainability at Former Waltham Experiment Station (2014)