Letter To The Editor - MSH Redevelopment

Medfield MA

20 June, 2022

1:36 PM

Description

Dear Editor, Medfield State Hospital Redevelopment: Controlling Our Destiny Back in 2014, as Medfield's residents contemplated the question of whether they wanted to acquire the Medfield State Hospital property from the state, the rallying cry in favor of the town buying the property was that the purchase would allow the town to "control its own destiny". Now, almost eight years later, the town will be asked to approve the sale of a portion of the hospital property to Trinity Acquisitions LLC at our Special Town Meeting on June 21st. This request is being made after the MSH Master Planning Committee spent four years soliciting opinions, ideas, and feedback from town residents on what they would like to see the town do with the state hospital property. The results of that comprehensive effort were documented in the award-winning Medfield State Hospital Strategic Reuse Master Plan. At the 2019 Special Town Meeting, the town confirmed its support for the master plan by voting to adopt special zoning requirements to ensure that redevelopment would be consistent with the intentions of the master plan. The town established the MSH Development Committee to move forward with the process of redevelopment in accordance with the approved zoning requirements. The committee spent its first year vetting the hospital master plan and zoning requirements with the real estate development community to confirm that they both not only reflected what Medfield's residents wanted, but also presented an economically viable opportunity for real estate developers. The result of that investigation confirmed that there was an economically viable opportunity from the development community's perspective. With that affirmation in hand. The Development Committee spent the past 2 years (with welcome financial help and general advice from the state through Mass Development) putting together a responsibly structured, disciplined, and open process for identifying potential qualified developers; soliciting and evaluating developer proposals; and now, negotiating a contract with the selected developer, Trinity Acquisitions LLC, to carry out a redevelopment project on the property. Throughout this process, Medfield's residents have had continuing opportunities to review progress and provide feedback. While it is impossible to give everybody everything they want, I hope town residents recognize the efforts the MSH Development Committee, along with the MSH Master Planning Committee that preceded it, have made to satisfy as many people in town as possible during this process. These committees have done their best to enable the town of Medfield to "control its own destiny"! On June 21st, Medfield will come together at our Special Town Meeting to make a key decision regarding the destiny of the state hospital property. Indirectly, this decision will also have a major impact on the overall "destiny" of the town. Medfield State Hospital has been an integral factor defining the identity and character of Medfield since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Speaking personally, I can't help but think that Medfield's caring town culture largely resulted from the town's awareness of, and involvement with, the residents of the state hospital over the years it was operating. But that alone doesn't account for the full significance of the state hospital to the town. Medfield's agricultural roots can be found up at the state hospital, along with its connections to the arts. The redevelopment of the hospital campus, proposed by Trinity offers the opportunity to maintain our connections with all of that by updating those purposes to reflect the needs and uses of Medfield today. We have preserved some historic resources in town, like the Peak House, the Dwight-Derby House, and Lowell Mason's home, as authentic artifacts of our past. But if we want to preserve something of the state hospital's magnitude, we will only be able to do that if we can repurpose that historic resource for new uses that link to past uses. Trinity's proposed project enables us to do just that, if the destiny we choose for this property, and the destiny we choose for Medfield, reflects the preferences we have expressed over the past several years since acquiring the hospital property from the state. While our upcoming Special Town Meeting will ask specific questions in the two articles on the town meeting warrant, the real question we are being asked is about the destiny we are choosing for our town. Gus Murby, Chairman - Medfield Board of Selectmen