MARCH 2006

P. O. Box 222 , Roslindale , MA 02131

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KEEP THE ARBORETUM GREEN

LIMIT HARVARD UNIVERSITY EXPANSION!

The Arboretum’s 14-acre Weld Hill parcel, off Centre, Walter and Weld Streets on the Roslindale, West Roxbury , and Jamaica Plain border.

Do you want open space in our neighborhood to become the next Longwood-type institutional complex on Centre Street ?

Weld Hill – 14 acres of rolling meadows and woods along Walter, Weld, and Centre Streets next to the Arboretum’s Peters Hill section – is owned by Harvard University . It is not zoned for institutional facilities. In the next few weeks, Harvard University and the Arnold Arboretum will submit plans to the City seeking approval to change the zoning in order to build a 40,000 square foot institutional complex at Weld Hill.

For the past two years neighborhood groups have worked in good faith with Harvard University and the Boston Redevelopment Authority on a fair compromise – allow Harvard to build the offices and research labs currently proposed with some extra room for their moderate future expansion, but preserve the majority of Weld Hill as permanent public open space.

Harvard continues to reject any meaningful permanent open space protections.Instead, they offer only minor window-dressing such as temporary set-backs and small changes in building location. It is now clear that Harvard is keeping its options open beyond the current proposal because there is even more massive institutional development to come.

Most of the Arboretum – but not Weld Hill – is protected from development under Harvard’s 19 th Century lease with the City. Consider the following:

• Harvard has announced its intentions to move facilities from Cambridge to currently nonexistent buildings at the Arboretum, including graduate degree programs and classrooms.
• Harvard has announced its intentions to build a new maintenance facility for Arboretum trucks and tractors, but refuses to identify the location.
• Harvard has announced its intentions to relocate to the Arboretum a research collection requiring as much as 70,000 square feet of storage space – as large as the Roche Brothers supermarket on Centre Street .

How many buildings will be next? Where will they be built? When does it stop growing?

Without permanent, legally binding limits on future development, open space at Weld Hill is almost certain to be developed over time. The neighboring Hebrew Senior Life rehab center, for example, was once a 9-acre public park. Forty years ago the City changed the zoning and sold the park for a modest building. The institution promised to abide by zoning limits on building height and density in order to win approval for the project. Those promises were broken, and the complex doubled in size in less than 10 years. Now the amount of development there is nearly three times as much as zoning allows – the former park is now a parking lot. At each critical juncture, the City assured the community that neighboring Weld Hill would remain permanent open space as a natural buffer between residences and institutions on Centre Street .

The time to make decisions about what our community will look like in the future is now. Once the zoning is changed and the current plans are approved, the neighborhood will have very little real control over any of Harvard’s future expansions.

Please join our neighborhood association in calling the following people right away. Tell them Harvard must make a binding commitment that most of Weld Hill will remain permanent public open space, and the City must honor its past commitments to our community. If not, we must reject any change in zoning at all.

Jay Walsh, Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services: 617-635-3485; E-mail: Jay.Walsh@cityofboston.gov

Sally Zeckhauser, Harvard University ’s Vice President of Administration: 617-495-1512; E-mail: Sally_Zeckhauser@harvard.edu

Rob Consalvo, City Councilor (Roslindale): 617-635-4210; E-mail: rob.consalvo@ci.boston.ma.us

John Tobin, City Councilor ( West Roxbury ): 617-635-4220; E-mail: John.Tobin@cityofboston.gov

Ways you can help:

1) Call public officials.

2) Write letters and e-mails to neighborhood newspapers: The Bulletin at news@westroxburybulletin.com; The Transcript at transcript@cnc.com; and the Harvard Crimson at news@thecrimson.com.

3) Join the Longfellow Area Neighborhood Association, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Your $10 dues will support this cause and are tax deductible. Contact us at lana@roslindale.net.

4) Make our concerns known at the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s upcoming meeting Thursday, March 30, 6:30 PM at the Community Center in the Municipal Building on the corner of Washington Street and Cummins Highway . That meeting is for the planning and rezoning of all of Roslindale, but uncontrolled institutional expansion and the loss of open space concern the entire community.

5) Spread the word to your friends and neighbors.

Weld Hill Aerial Photo