Waltham Field Station, UMass Land Sale Closer To Happening

WALTHAM, MA — For months, the city and UMass Amherst have been in quiet talks regarding the future of the 58 acres in north Waltham commonly known as the UMass Field Station. The landlord, UMass, has communicated its intention to shutter the administrative offices at 240 Beaver Street by the end of the year. Tenants, residents and activists argue the property should be acquired by the city to be used for perpetual use as a farm and open space.

On Tuesday night, the city council approved spending some $13.75 million from the Community Preservation Act funds to acquire the field station from UMass Amherst, making acquisition one step closer to a reality.

"It's probably one of the most important votes I've taken on the council since I started," said Councilor George Darcy who also chairs the Long Term Debt and Capitol Planning committee, which recommended using the money, second only to the acquisition of the money for the high school he later told Patch. "The 50 acre UMass field station is a gem of Waltham and there is no better use of CPA funds for this motion."

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.

Applications for CPA funds go through the Preservation Commission then get sent to city council for appropriation. The mayor's request of $14 million was approved, it then headed into Long Term Debt and Capitol Planning committee before it came back to City Council for final approval. Because of a small timing issue on how the state funds are calculated, the last $250,000 will be approved when they arrive later this month.

"It's an important step, but not the final step," said Sen. Mike Barrett, who's been supportive of the acquisition. "We need to see the university agree to a reasonable price. And that's not quite a done deal."

The city council approval allows the mayor to go into negotiation with the state with that amount of money. The final price of the land could be higher or lower, depending on negotiations.

Barrett, who has been in touch with both sides of the table said he's hoping to see a deal by the end of the year.

"There's an understandable tension here," he said. "The university is under pressure from its Board of Trustees to get a high price for a very interesting parcel. And the city, on the other hand, wants to save as much money for the taxpayers as it can. It's taking a while for the two sides to bridge that gap."

Once the deal with the state is finished, it will come back to the city council in a closed doors executive session, city council will deliberate, then close the deal and the last step is the recording of the deed transfer, said Darcy.

But he and other city councilors are optimistic.

City Councilor Cathyann Harris said she shares Darcy's sentiment on what she describes as one of her proudest moments on the council: "That we were able to acquire this land for public use in perpetuity; that is going to be a gift for everyone to enjoy that beautiful open space generations to come."

In 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 continue.

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. It also isn't likely cheap, which worries some. The actual cost of the land, is still unclear as negotiations are being held behind closed doors in executive session still.

Still, 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.

Tenants were put on notice last winter 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 a bit through advocacy.

"The non-profits on the site know that they're going to be tenants after January," said Bennett. "There was a time that the university was threatening evictions. Those days are gone. There are some very important non-profit missions for the city and entire region in play here, so we've got to find a way to protect those and make some repairs to that building, regardless of who the owner and landlord is."

The final vote was 12 in favor, Randy LeBlanc recused himself, because he lives next to the land, and Bill Fowler was not present.

Read more:

• 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)

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).