CPC Recommends Funds for Seven Projects

By Juliet Jenkins

The Belmont Community Preservation Committee (CPC) voted to recommend funding seven projects totaling $2,058,554 for FY 2023, to be voted on at the annual Town Meeting, through the Community Preservation Act (CPA) current funding round. Following the CPC’s public hearing and vote on December 8, 2021, the proposed projects were filed with the Belmont Town Clerk and set for voting by Town Meeting in May 2022. 

Projects supported with CPA funding must create or preserve affordable housing, historic resources, open space, or recreational facilities.

All CPA proposals are developed and created by Belmontonians, and each project directly serves our community. Since residents voted to adopt the CPA in 2010, Belmont has awarded over $10 million to support 56 projects (bit.ly/Belmont-CPC-Projects) across the town. There have been 25 recreation projects, one open space project, nine affordable housing projects, and 21 historic preservation projects. 

The following projects are recommended for funding in FY 2023. They include four recreation, one affordable housing, and two historic preservation projects: 

Affordable Housing

$400,000 for pre-development funding for the revitalization of Sherman Gardens 

Sponsor: Belmont Housing Authority (BHA) 

This project will allow the BHA and the town to preserve and renovate the 80 existing affordable housing units that are obsolete because of a lack of accessibility features, undersized units, and unmet capital needs. The BHA has contracted with the Cambridge Housing Authority to serve as a consultant for the redevelopment. The proposed redevelopment would ensure that all units are served by an elevator and would create opportunities for more adequate and varied community spaces, both indoor and outdoor, to encourage social activities and improve access to necessary services.

Historic Preservation

$26,100 for the restoration of Belmont’s historic tower clock

Sponsor: Belmont Citizens Forum and the First Church of Belmont Unitarian Universalist  

This project will restore the historic clock in the tower of the church so that it will tell the correct time and ring on the hour. The tower is a central feature in Belmont Center, standing adjacent to the town green with its magnificent copper beech tree and its historic Wellington train station. This application seeks to restore the clock’s function, which will require completely disassembling the movement of the clock and its gears, cleaning, and reassembly.

$60,000 for a Belmont Cemetery Preservation Master Plan with treatment 

Sponsor: Belmont’s Department of Public Works (DPW) and the Cemetery Commission 

The DPW and Cemetery Commission will hire a qualified consulting firm to prepare, and present a comprehensive preservation and restoration master plan with treatment recommendations consisting of both narrative and graphic elements for Belmont Cemetery. This would include hardscape items as well as landscape elements. Town staff manage and maintain the perpetual care obligation but do not have the skills to properly evaluate, preserve, and restore historically significant items and landscape elements.

Recreation Facilities

$40,000 project for Grove Street baseball and basketball reconstruction

Sponsor: Town of Belmont, Friends of Grove Street Park, and Belmont Youth Baseball and Softball. 

The project will reconstruct the three youth baseball fields, reconstruct the basketball court, and address drainage issues in those areas. The growing popularity of youth and adult sports in town makes Grove Street Park an important piece of infrastructure in Belmont. Rehabilitating these assets will enable the community to stay active safely.

$200,000 for Belmont Community Path Phase 2 

Sponsor: Community Path Project Committee 

The Belmont Community Path will connect the Fitchburg Cut-Off Bike Path at Brighton Street, which provides a crucial link to the MBTA Alewife T Station and other multiuse paths beyond. The goal of this application is funding to start design work on Phase 2 of the path, which will connect the western terminus of Phase 1 at the Clark Street pedestrian bridge with the Mass Central Rail Trail in Waltham, just beyond the MBTA Waverley Station. This project is needed to provide convenient, safe, off-road connections to important commercial, educational, and recreational destinations in Belmont for walkers and bicyclists of all ages.

$250,662 for Town Field playground and court restoration

Sponsor: Friends of Town Field Playground

In 2016, the Friends identified the need to replace the outdated playground equipment with modern and more accessible equipment suitable for a wider range of ages and to repair the basketball and pickleball courts. Phase 1 design and Phase 2 build funds were granted by CPC. Because of the pandemic, inflation, supply chain issues, and labor shortages, all bids for the construction came in higher than the appropriated funds. Both the playground and courts are intensively used recreation spaces for children and adults. The Friends of Town Field Playground, the DPW, and the community worked with Waterfield Design Group to come up with a new design. 

$1,031,792.72 for Phase II construction plans for the revitalization of Payson Park

Sponsor: Friends of Payson Park

This application is the second phase of a two-phase plan for improved safety and access at Payson Park. This phase includes final design and construction costs to implement the design created by the Activus, Inc. landscape architectural design firm. Payson Park is one of the last two Belmont parks to be updated. Currently, the steps on two entrances are hazardous due to deterioration. The field used for t-ball and soccer lessons for the youngest players is uneven and full of ruts and protruding rocks. The benches, picnic tables, and playground equipment are all past their useful lives, and they are broken or cracked in many places. Plans include a new multiuse accessible gathering area as well.

Final Review and Last Steps

Before Town Meeting in May, there will be multiple public meetings, including review of the projects by the sponsoring organizations, continuing refinements as necessary at upcoming Community Preservation meetings, and public meetings by the Warrant Committee, the Select Board, and the Capital Budget Committee to review the projects. Questions? Please contact Matthew Haskell, budget analyst in the Town Administrator’s office, at mhaskell@belmont-ma.gov, or connect with this author or any CPC committee members.

To read the complete applications, see: bit.ly/BCF-CPC-23.For more information about the Community Preservation Act, visit bit.ly/CPC-Belmont. To learn more about the process of applying for Community Preservation Act funding, visit the CPC’s CPA annual plan, especially the section titled Standard Application Process. at bit.ly/CPA-Funding

Juliet Jenkins is a new at-large appointed member of the Community Preservation Committee and a Precinct 3 Town Meeting member.