FERNALD | George Darcy

Reuse of the Fernald Site

The Fernald

The City of Waltham closed on its acquisition of the 196 acre Fernald Developmental Center on December 23, 2014 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts..

The Fernald parcel contains 66 structures, totaling approximately 1.35 million square feet. The entire Fernald site is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. The purchase price of $3.7 million dollars, which amounts to approximately $18,974 dollars per acre, was a very modest amount by today’s standards. However, for 127 years the City of Waltham has provided many municipal services to the Fernald, including fire, emergency, and some street, utility, and police services, with no compensation. It is easily argued that the City of Waltham deserved a very modest purchase price. In addition, the Fernald land never generated any local tax revenue.

Below are the 22 resolutions I have submitted to the Waltham CIty Council in the past few years regarding potential reuses at the Fernald land. Four of them have already been approved.

2010-03-22 - Concerning Wetland Restoration at Fernald for the public purpose of flood prevention (APPROVED!)
2016-10-22 - Concerning Fernald Front Lawn (APPROVED!)
2016-10-22 - Concerning Establishing a National Museum Commemorating the Developmentally Disabled
2016-10-22 - Concerning Creating an Art Gallery / Exhibition Center at Fernald
2016-10-22 - Concerning Creating a Community Center at Fernald
2016-10-22 - Concerning Restoring Former Functioning Farm Fields and Orchards at the Fernald
2016-10-22 - Concerning Creating a Playground Designed for People with Developmental Disabilities at Fernald
2016-10-22 - Concerning Using Fernald Buildings and Land for Public Vocational Training
2016-10-22 - Concerning a Western Greenway Path through Fernald (APPROVED!)
2016-11-14 - Concerning Illegal Dump Site at Fernald
2016-11-28 - Concerning Sledding on Owl Hill (APPROVED!)
2016-12-26 - Concerning Creating an Outdoor Amphitheater at the Fernald
2017-06-26 - Concerning Restoring the Walkway at Malone Park at Fernald
2017-06-26 - Concerning Conducting a Natural Inventory at Fernald
2017-06-26 - Making Fernald a Net Zero Energy Site
2018-04-09 - Concerning Creating a Permanent 5k / School Cross Country Course at Fernald
2020-11=23 - Concerning a Polliniator Pavilion at Fernald
2020=11=23 - Concerning Security at the Fernald
2020-11-23 - Concerning Housing at the Fernald
2020-11-23 - Concerning Viticulture and Solar Power at Fernald
2020-11-23 - Concerning Access to Fernald for Forest Street Residents
2020-11-23 - Concerning Equestrian Center at Fernald

You can view ALL of the resolutions in the PDF viewer below: