Housing, Recreation Proposed For Hospital Site
The sprawling Westborough State Hospital site just off Route 9 is an ideal place for a housing community that could include apartments and condominiums in refurbished historic buildings, recreational areas, a village shopping center and a pier that could provide access to a natural lake, according to planners hired by the state to study the property.
Officials with Watertown-based Sasaki Associates recently presented three options for the state-owned land, which is located in Westborough and Northborough. Each of the concepts involves a mixed-use development that would support between 517 and 561 housing units, light commercial retail and a public pier.
State officials will continue to study Sasaki's recommendations for the rest of the year and plan to hold a public hearing soon to solicit input on the property. Then state planners hope to work with a developer in the coming years to begin development of the site.
Rare Find
Westborough State Hospital officially closed last year and now sits mostly vacant on Lyman Street, just north of Route 9 and west of Interstate 495.
Aside from a juvenile detention facility that is still in use, the more than 800 acres of state-owned land that surrounds the former state hospital is mostly vacant buildings and open space. The former Westborough State Hospital sits on about 168 acres, which is the part that Sasaki has proposed be redeveloped. That portion of land includes lakefront property along the shores of Lake Chauncey.
Last year the state Legislature established a commission to study the reuse of the hospital site and in turn the commission hired Sasaki to brainstorm development opportunities for the land.
Sasaki Principal Planner Fred Merrill said the site is valuable and unique.
"There aren't many of these types of opportunities around," Merrill said. "The site sits within an amazing network of conservation land ... it gives the developer an opportunity to create a new neighborhood in a garden."
Each of the three concepts developed by Sasaki are similar, with minor differences being the number of new versus refurbished housing units and how much non-residential, or "village-style" commercial development there would be.
Merrill said he does not think the area would be a good place for office or industrial development, but is an ideal location for a combination of apartments, townhomes, assisted living, recreational land and light commercial.
State officials seem pleased with the early results.
Each of the proposals show that a development would be budget-positive for the town, meaning that the amount of money a project would raise through tax revenue would exceed the town's costs associated with the development.
Furthermore, all of the plans conform with zoning regulations and preserve a significant amount of open space, while also making use of the historic structures, according to Kevin Flanigan, a spokesperson for the state Department of Capital Asset Management, which is leading the reuse study.
While there is no sense as to how much a development project could be worth, Flanigan noted that initial site work, which includes utility infrastructure and historic rehabilitation, would be in excess of $50 million. That does not include new construction costs.
Westborough Town Planner Jim Robbins said any development on the site is a long way off.
One major point of study in the coming months will be what sort of increased utility infrastructure would be needed by the town to support the development.
Flanigan said in the coming weeks the reuse committee hopes to hold public hearings on the plans.
The reuse committee hopes to release its final report this summer.
To view a copy of Sasaki's presentation, click here. (Warning: this is a large PDF file.)
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