LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Medford Square – a start

I recently watched the May 13 City Council meeting. The meeting included a presentation on the proposed development for the east side of the Square. 

Alicia Hunt from the Office of Community Development presented the RFP response from Transom Development for the east side of Medford Square.

The area covered includes three city-owned parcels of land. The large parcel behind City Hall, a second along Riverside Avenue between the retail store and the senior center, and the third behind the Hyatt Hotel running parallel with I-93.

Initial observations on the proposal

The proposal has many good suggestions and includes numerous elements from past studies. All three city-owned parcels are covered in Transom’s plan.

One important area the plan does not take advantage of is the Mystic River. The proposed building by the Senior Center does not wrap around towards the river. Medford citizens during past outreach discussions have always made the connection with the river a paramount objective for any development in this area.

The buildings call for apartments and mixed-use retail on the street level. This is a cornerstone theme in surrounding successful squares. A grocery store is shown in one of the buildings and would be a good amenity for residents and pedestrians. However, the selected business should be a small-scale store like Farmland in Wakefield. No large supermarket chains.

Parking, which is always a key element for both the existing Square community and to support new uses and visitors, needs more investigation.

Currently, the Transom plan shows a large garage structure along I-93 on one of the parcels. Inputs from past studies cautioned against creating such a structure as it creates a large dead zone. More discussion is needed on how the intended garage will avoid that problem and maximize the use of that parcel. Also, past ideas incorporated distributed parking within the various buildings in the overall design. For this important component, more dialog is needed.

The Transom plan presented covers a large portion of the Square, but the city planning needs to consider the entire Square running west into the center and beyond. Revisiting the existing traffic routing and direction can possibly address the less-than-ideal, current, circular pattern. 

How should the heavy traffic flow and speed into Salem Street be reduced? How will any changes consider convenient access to the new areas from the Transom plan? How will movement from the east side better integrate with the center and west sides of the Square. We do not want the Square to appear to be fractured.

The space taken up by Ring Road currently occupies the most valuable corridor along the river for traffic and parking. This should be re-designed. Any longer-term planning and Chapter 91 authorization for change along the river should get underway sooner rather than later. Existing buildings along Riverside Avenue should have two fronts, one towards the river and a second facing Riverside Avenue.

Connecting the north side of the Square from Salem Street, Forest Street and High Street could be accomplished by “alleyways” going north-to-south towards the river and would could create interesting walkways.

An important step always brought up by past city councilor Rich Caraviello, the city needs to engage the existing property owners. What they choose to do with their buildings will be a critical component of a fully revitalized square. This is not always easy, but constant outreach and results are essential. Communication including the property owners as part of the team can work. Business development and opportunities can be the attraction.

The topics listed above cannot be sufficiently articulated in a brief letter. Also, the actual implementation for some of these items beyond the Transom proposal may be in the future, but planning now will ensure better success.

Further discussion, fine tuning/expanding the details, researching past plans, and city planning resources will all be needed to create the revitalized square we all want. The city will get one chance at doing this correctly.

Two take-aways:

First, community involvement is needed now. It must start before the details are “finalized”.

Second, the city planning committee is too insulated with the internal government players. They bring skills to the team, but additional insights, skills and ideas are needed. There are many talented and knowledgeable citizens in Medford. There are business managers, architects, real estate experts, city planners and program managers. 

The city has positioned the program for a good start. There is much to be positive about. To the city government and its citizens, let’s get this right.

— Rick Orlando, Medford