SYMMES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ANNUAL REPORT 2003
Arlington Board of Selectmen’s Mandate for Development
The Board of Selectmen in their Official Policy Statement regarding a debt exclusion vote to acquire the Symmes property set forth a series of commitments related to the overall goal of the Town to control development on the site. The mandate was developed to ensure that redevelopment of the site would benefit the entire Town. The goals were intended to provide a framework for the Town’s long-term needs and planning objectives. The five commitments of the Board can be summarized as follows:
· To ensure a mixed-use redevelopment with affordable housing
· To ensure that redevelopment is at least self-supporting
· To maintain the proportion of open space on the site
· To promote expanded health care services
· To ensure an open planning process
Symmes Advisory Committee: Process and Findings
Process
The Symmes Advisory Committee (SAC) was created by Town Meeting to assist the Board of Selectmen and the Arlington Redevelopment Board in determining the appropriate uses for the site and to report its recommendations to Town Meeting. The SAC is composed of 13 individuals representing various boards, committees and interest groups in Arlington. The SAC organized a series of Working Groups to explore options for various types of land uses on the site and to assist it in its work. The four use-related Working Groups are Public Use, Medical Use, Residential Use and Commercial Use, and include membership from the SAC, residents of the surrounding neighborhoods, and other interested citizens. Other Working Groups were formed to evaluate the financial viability of proposed redevelopment plans, and to
coordinate community outreach and communications of SAC activities.
In June, 2002, the SAC hired a consultant team headed up by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB) to provide professional planning, design and engineering services to the Town. The VHB team conducted a year-long detailed site assessments related to buildings, environmental conditions, open space, utilities/infrastructure, traffic, and urban design issues; conducted a comprehensive market study of the residential, commercial and health care market from a local and regional perspective; and developed and tested a series of alternative reuse scenarios from both a financial and physical impact perspective.
The SAC with the assistance of VHB engaged the community at many levels with extensive outreach efforts to gather, analyze and disseminate information about the project. With the involvement of scores of volunteers, each of the Use Working Groups investigated various proposals, desires and constraints and developed priorities for consideration.
Through this process the SAC gathered information about the site, market conditions, and our community’s needs and desires. Our objective was to determine a realistic range of possibilities in which the constraints, aspirations and potential of these factors can be made to coincide. The Committee developed a range of prototype redevelopment alternatives by exploring the tradeoffs among types and intensity of development, and repeatedly evaluating and refining those alternatives. It then tested them against financial constraints; tested them for their capacity to address community needs; and tested them against the mandate of the Selectmen.
From this process have emerged three conceptual alternatives that illustrate a range of possibilities, each of which is financially viable. These are not designs of what will be, but scenarios that have allowed Arlington to learn about community impact and costs of redevelopment, while pushing to determine the lowest feasible intensity of development that can be expected to accomplish major goals.
The primary outcome of the SAC process is the articulation of redevelopment parameters for the site. A realistic set of controls and restrictions can harness the creativity of the development community to our benefit, by defining the Town’s requirements and engaging developers in competition to propose solutions that fit those requirements.
Summary of Findings
With respect to the Board of Selectmen’s objectives, the Committee’s findings are summarized as follows:
Mixed Use Development
The strongest market in Arlington is for residential development and the site can support a mix of affordable, market rate, luxury and senior housing units. The characteristics of the site, including its views, ready access to Massachusetts Avenue, and the nature of the surrounding neighborhoods, enhance the site’s appeal for residential use. A 30% affordable housing component is a valid and realizable goal; half of that number can be achieved without external funding, and the remainder will require creative and cooperative use of available subsidies. The current market for commercial development is depressed, and the site itself is less than optimal for intensive commercial use. Commercial use also generates the greatest traffic and parking impacts, making it difficult to achieve financial
balance without high environmental costs. The current medical and health care services provided by Lahey and Healthsouth should be accommodated. Market research indicates that any additional health care services at Symmes should be focused on preventive care and wellness.
Financially Self-Supporting
A comprehensive financial model was developed to gauge the feasibility of various levels, types and approaches to development and their effect on Town finances. The model shows that the clearest and lowest-risk path to achieve a self-supporting project is a “hand-off” model in which the Town sells or ground-leases the property under tight controls on its use and reuse. The model further demonstrates that to be self-supporting, total development in the range of 400,000 SF will be necessary. Reuse of some or all of the buildings on the site remains an option, and is a decision that should be driven solely by the resulting economics for the benefit of the Town.
Open Space Preservation
Fifty percent of the site can be protected as public open space to maintain habitat, to provide buffering and for passive public use, with improvements to provide a prominent area for community interaction. This is compatible with development on the scale necessary to be financially viable. The community planning process also identified other desirable public uses for the site and determined that some public amenities may be synergistic with health care services and can be accommodated in concert with them.
Expanded Health Care Services
As health care and health insurance costs continue to rise dramatically, health care delivery systems are in crisis and consolidation of providers continues to increase. Acute care hospital-based medical services, including emergency services, are not feasible now or in the foreseeable future at the Symmes site. An independent consultant’s analysis has determined that Arlington’s decreasing population is well served by local doctors and nearby hospitals. Expanded health care services at the site should focus on preventive care and wellness. The site can maintain the existing level of health services; additional medical services, including a wellness and fitness component, should be promoted within a mixed-use development.
Planning Process
The planning process for the Symmes project entailed extensive community outreach that included a town-wide survey, Vision 2020 data, over 100 meetings of SAC, its volunteer Working Groups and the ARB, four public workshops attended by over 600 attendees, a developers roundtable to solicit input from private developers, reports to town meeting, and implementation of an interactive project website to communicate information about the project. The process has resulted in the development of a series of parameters to govern future development. It has been especially important in highlighting the need to respect, relate to and minimize impacts on the surrounding residential neighborhoods, and to ensure environmentally responsible and sensitive development. The SAC recommended that an open, transparent and
inclusive planning process continue to be supported through disposition and project execution.
Launching the Redevelopment and Reuse Phase
In the spring and summer of 2003, the Arlington Redevelopment Board (ARB), the formal owner or the Symmes property, initiated a developer recruiting and selection process based largely on the findings of the Symmes Advisory Committee. Through a period of requests for information and evaluations the ARB winnowed a field of over 30 potential developers to a short-list of four firms who submitted extensive competitive proposals for the development of the site. In January and February of 2004, after a series of public developer presentations, presentations by the SAC, public hearings and formal debate, the ARB selected E.A. Fish Company team as the site developer. An intensive series of negotiations regarding environmental impact, special permit review and other issues that will regulate and control the development process are
underway. As envisioned by the Board of Selectmen, the Symmes site is moving towards a new era as a sensitive, balanced mixed-use development in the heart of Arlington.
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