From Malden Hospital to Fellsmere Community Park

The first article in a series
By Joy Pearson, Steven Keleti, and Bob Doolittle

Between the first mayor of Malden and our current mayor an epic story has been unfolding. The story is far from over, and every reader and resident in Medford and Malden has a role to play in its outcome.

Protecting our Legacy

Malden’s first Mayor, Elisha Converse, spoke with his actions and said in 1890: to future generations of Malden and Medford and their health I donate 18 acres for a hospital where all can come to give birth, to be healed and to end their days in a place of quality care and love. And so it was for over 100 years, supported by an endowment from Elisha Converse and by millions in donations from Malden residents and others.

Hallmark Health, through the merger with other local hospitals, was given both the land and hospital to operate for the community. Hallmark closed the hospital in 2001, and is seeking to sell it to recoup their losses. Now comes the great question: Will the gift of land and the generous contributions of generations of Maldonians in the 110-year history of public benefit be continued or will it be lost to high-density development?

Malden’s present Mayor, Gary Christensen has answered that question with another question. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want a park on the hospital site, but how can we possibly afford it?” This article will document the community’s response to that challenge from our Mayor, and update readers on the details of our shared and unfinished story.

The old Malden Hospital has been idle and dangerous for fifteen years. In the summer of 2014 a group of Medford and Malden residents began to discuss creating a park and a community building on the 18-acre site. This community effort acquired a sudden sense of urgency in November of 2014, when the City of Malden hosted a public meeting for a new developer, Fellsmere Housing Group (FHG), to present their proposal to redevelop the site with a 395-unit housing development. A series of three public meetings was then held by Malden and Medford residents to create a community vision for the hospital site, to capture the hopes and possibilities for public use of the site. The resulting community vision was presented in June 2015, which includes the park shown below.

Hearing the Community Response

That community group incorporated as Friends of Fellsmere Heights (FoFH), a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Throughout the spring of 2015, FoFH gathered signatures petitioning elected officials to preserve that site for public benefit, not for private use. That signature count now nears the 1000 mark. The Malden City Council responded by putting a referendum question on the November 2016 ballot asking voters whether the city should acquire a portion of the hospital site. There were two other referendum questions that would register public sentiment regarding two related community concerns. The community responded loud and clear:

Question 1: Yes 3-to-1 – Moratorium on Housing Development
Question 2: Yes 3-to-1 – Acquire a portion of the Hospital Site
Question 3: Yes 3-to-2 – Community Preservation Act (CPA)

Accepting the Challenge

The wave of public feeling that has risen up recently in response to rapid development and lack of open space accounts for the results.

Following the election, FoFH met with Mayor Christensen. He recognized the groundswell of public interest in open space, but because the City’s budget is facing shortfalls, the question remains: How to fund it?

Answering that question is the central purpose of this article series, but first it is important to recount other recent events:

In the winter and spring of 2016, the Malden Planning Board, denied special permits and variances for apartment construction proposals that came before them. They were seemingly manifesting the strong and widespread public resistance to the recent surge of large-scale apartment construction in Malden. The same sentiment is evident in Medford which, like Malden, also passed the Community Preservation Act (CPA) last November. Both communities are battling large-scale developments that are making traffic and quality of life worse.

In the late spring of this year, at the urging of Mayor Christensen, FoFH began meeting with the developer to see if some way might be found to compromise and collaborate. The first meeting was to walk through the old hospital with an architect to see if anything about the existing structure could be reused. It was determined it has to be demolished. At the second meeting FoFH presented the community vision for preserving the site for public use. At the third meeting the developer presented their plans, just before they presented those plans to the public on September 22.

Seeking Common Ground

Thus far, we have found very little common ground: FOFH sees the hospital site as an opportunity to meet community needs for open space and mixed-use development, and FHG sees the hospital site as a very attractive business opportunity for high-density development – goals seemingly irreconcilable and out of balance with one another. The developer estimates an addition of 480 cars to a traffic pattern (Fellsway East) that is already backed up a half mile at rush hour. There will be a sizable impact to the schools. The principal of the neighborhood Beebe School has said it is already over-enrolled by 50 students. All Malden schools are above or soon to be above capacity due to new housing. The additional traffic and students would create a serious burden.

Those three meetings with the developer did uncover one very interesting area of possible cooperation. The interests of the community and the developer could coincide if the community brings significant local, state, foundation, and corporate funding sources to the table. Hallmark Health has mentioned to several Malden elected officials a price of $6 million. The developer has told FoFH that if significant funding were found, then the number of units could be scaled back and a substantial number of acres could be provided for public use. That compromise could benefit FHG by attracting enough public support to influence the Council and Planning Board – despite the widespread anti-development public sentiment – to approve a plan satisfactory to all.

Next article:
“Community Collaboration to Fund Fellsmere Community Park”

Joy Pearson, Steven Keleti, and Bob Doolittle
Friends of Fellsmere Height