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Date: 8/11/2016
LONGMEADOW – The Adult Center Building Committee hosted a public forum on Aug. 3, in which it revealed its list of eight sites had been narrowed down to four, some of which include Bliss Park and Laurel Park.
Committee member Fred Vanderhoof said Laurel Park has a little traffic and described the location as “serene.” There is a nearby pond, active waterfall, and hiking trails on site.
“We also feel that this senior center development could help this park overall,” he noted. “We’ve kind of heard that the maintenance might be lacking.”
Vanderhoof described Bliss Park as “almost perfect” for the senior center, noting that building the senior center there would promote “synergy” with the park.
“It’s got great access,” he added. “It’s a perfect shared opportunity between the senior center and the very active park in town.”
Committee Chair Marybeth Bergeron said other sites still remaining on the table include the first site at Turner Park and the Quartus property, which is located near Storrs Library and historic homes.
She explained if the Quartus property were chosen, the historic homes would not be affected, in response to a question from a resident.
“The Quartus is two pieces of property on Longmeadow Street adjacent to our Community House,” she added. “If we were able to acquire those two properties and were able to use some of the land that is owned by the library that would be a fabulous location for a new senior center.”
Bergeron said if the Quartus property were chosen the style of architecture for the new senior center would have to be in keeping with the historical aesthetic.
Vanderhoof said the first parcel of Turner Park currently has a dirt road and by building a senior center on the parcel, traffic flow and parking would be improved.
“It’s a little tight, two way traffic wise,” he added. “Our thought on a new development for a senior center – these access roads would be improved. It would certainly help the town overall, not only for our needs for parking, but additional parking for a ball game.”
Lighting and the addition of public restrooms would be included as well, he explained.
He added Bliss Park would also benefit in the same ways if the senior center were located there.
Bergeron said sites that didn’t make the cut include Wolf Swamp Field, the Greenwood Center, a second site at Turner Park, and two parcels on Academy Drive, one of which is the water tower property.
She added the committee ranked each site by a specific set of criteria, which included topography and the whether the site was buildable, whether the location would fit with the historical aesthetic of an area, conservation impacts, deed restrictions, and sports field impacts.
“This was extremely important to us because it was extremely important to our town,” she explained. “It’s not important to me. I don’t play soccer and honestly I don’t play baseball, but a good portion of our citizens do – our younger people and some of our citizens who are between the ages of 20 and 40 … We can’t really remove that from the inventory of our town.”
Wolf Swamp Field was removed from the list due to its sports impact on the community.
The Department of Public Works (DPW) Building Committee also removed the site as a location for its project recently. The site also generated negativity earlier this year among residents at several public meetings during its ranking as top DPW site by the previous town manager DPW Task Force.
Bergeron said the water tower property and Academy Drive parcel were eliminated because they both are composed of 10 acres each. The project would need 3.5 acres for the building and parking.
“If we took that land off of the inventory of town land, which again, is so limited, it would restrict further usage of the rest of that acreage, which might be okay today, but what about 2050 when maybe more housing is needed or there’s some other project that the town wants to do?” she explained.
The Greenwood Center, the current location of the Adult Center, would need to come into current building codes for the entire center if renovations were to take place at the site, Bergeron said. One or two ball fields would also be removed to make room for the renovations.
“We feel that would be very negative to the population in the town,” she explained.
During the end of the meeting, committee members handed out surveys for residents attending the meeting to rank the sites they deemed most desirable and least desirable.