Bike Park, Anaerobic Digestor, Pet Cemetery: What To Do With Belmont’s Old Incinerator

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Photo: Residents wait to speak to the Selectmen on the future of the town’s incinerator.

A place for recreation, revenue, and reflection. Those were just three broad public suggestions for the future of Belmont’s former incinerator site at the Board of Selectmen’s meeting on Monday, June 18 at Town Hall.  

With the land now fully under town control, the post-closure use of the roughly 17 acres of usable land – 8 acres of the 25 total acres is comprised of wetlands –  which has been closed since 1976 is an empty canvas for residents to fill with their recommendations but only up to a point.

“We can’t do everything on this site, it’s a finite amount of land so clearly … not everyone is going to get what they necessarily what they want. I hope that everyone can keep in mind what’s in the best interest of the town … and the cost of doing these things,” said Selectmen Chair Adam Dash.

Community Development Director Glen Clancy discussed the nuts and bolts of the land off Concord Avenue near the Lexington town line. The site is segmented into three areas; a pair of front parcels – known as A and B – totaling 14 acres and 3 acres in the back which is identified as C. The front parcels – made up of  land was deeded to the town by the state – are under restrictions that limited its use to “recreation, public works, or other municipal uses.”

While the back parcel was never used as a landfill and will not need capping of the soil below, the two front areas will require either an augmented cap or an extensive layering of material over the contaminated ash fill.

While the town in the past had discussed numerous post-closure uses for the site – the location of a new police station, a park, and ride, a skating rink and private commercial development – the restrictions by the state and high costs have officials eyeing a more passive approach to the future uses. In addition, the town’s Department of Public Works will require several “bins” to keep leaf and yard waste for composting, storage of pipes and for emergency snow removal.

Some residents have been thinking about possible best uses of the area. An ad-hoc group is proposing a multi-use project that includes a skate park, bike trails and a solar array that will increase recreation space, be environmentally friendly and create a revenue stream – estimated at $1.5 million over 20 years with a similar solar field – from passive energy benefiting the town and Belmont Light.

“This is something where it produces power, helps us reach our future climate goals, it has an economic payback and it helps our ratepayers,” said Travis Frank who introduced the proposal with a slide show of the plans.

Another plan that came prepared as a written proposal is dubbed anaerobic digestion. While that may sound like what happens when you do high-intensity exercise after eating lunch, rather, it’s when microorganisms break down biodegradable material – ie. food waste – in the absence of oxygen at a moderate-sized facility on the landfill. The byproducts from the process are methane that can be used to generate a large amount of electricity and compost for fertilizer. 

“If the town moves forward on this proposal, they will meet with town officials on how big of a facility will be and how it would be capable to the land it is on,” said Bruce Haskell of Langdon Environmental in Southborough. While the proposal, which would be built by a third-party private vendor, garnered some interest by potentially reducing solid waste collection in town and would be a revenue source, there were concerns of controlling potential odors and truck traffic bringing in organic waste and taking out compost were presented.

Other residents suggestions included passive use, a possible location of the proposed Belmont Youth Hockey ice skating rink, and a dog park.

Another dog related use that perked the ears of those attending was a proposal for a dog/pet cemetery at the location. There are relatively few final resting places for the family pooch and the town could “ask $2,000” for a plot for Spot, suggested Evan Harris from Statler Road. 

While suggestions on the possibilities for the site filled two posterboard sheets of paper, the day of the ribbon cutting of any of the ideas is some time in the future.

“The site will be used as a staging area for the construction of capital projects and the new Belmont High School, so we are looking well down the road,” said Dash after the meeting.

“But its good that we have begun the process,” he added.

Opinion: Solar Power The Best And Brightest Use For Incinerator Site

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By Martin Plass

We as the town have to decide soon on the future use of the incinerator site. The Board of Selectmen discussed this in their meeting on Thursday, June 7 and there will be a meeting for public input on June 18 at 8 p.m. at Town Hall. I urge the public to attend and voice their input and concerns.

One thing that concerns me is the temptation to find a commercial usage for the property that will maximize the income for the town instead of using the opportunity to enhance the beautiful natural conservation lands that surround the incinerator site. We as the town are already working on improvements to Rock Meadow with an agricultural consultant. With the McLean Barn upgrades being considered on the south end and the incinerator site on the north end of Rock Meadow we can further develop this area into a beautiful park and recreation land that integrates into the Western Greenway with Lone Tree Hill and Habitat to the East and Beaver Brook to the West. (By the way: I would love to see the McLean Barn turn into a café or beer garden, maybe with artist lofts spaces and a visitor information center that could provide some income to the town and would be a great place to enjoy a refreshment after a walk).

One proposal that has come up is to use the incinerator site for an anaerobic digester that would turn organic waste (food leftovers, etc.) into methane gas that would be burned on site and generate electricity (think Deer Island). I am concerned about this usage and worry that it could seriously interrupt the natural beauty of the area by bringing undesirable odors, noise from the generator, exhausts from burning methane, and heavy truck traffic to the site. While the prospect of making money with such a plant and providing renewable energy to Belmont is tempting, we need to make sure that such a use is in harmony with the areas around it and has none of these negative side effects. For the same reason, I am opposed to developing any parcels for housing. This would convert natural recreational space into private restricted space, something that could not be reversed.

Instead, I can see a community-owned solar array as a possible compromise usage which would generate some income for the town and fit with our climate action goals. Solar would not produce any noise, traffic, smells or other negative effects on the site and could be set-up to allow vegetation underneath and secondary use in combination with it. I like the proposal from one interest group that combines a community solar array with a bike park, a skateboard park, some DPW containers and a boardwalk for nature viewing as well as parking to serve as an additional access point to Rock Meadow and the Western Greenway.

I hope to see many Belmontians turn up for the June 18th meeting and look forward to seeing other proposed uses. To me, the overriding criteria should be to use the site to enhance our recreational nature areas for the enjoyment of the entire community.

Martin Plass lives on Stanley Road and is a Town Meeting Member representing Precinct 3

Selectmen To Ask Residents: What Should Go Into The Former Incinerator Site?

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Photo: The entrance to the former Belmont incinerator site.

The day before town residents are asked to provide their thoughts on limits on the place and time of retail marijuana sales, the Board of Selectmen is holding a meeting inviting citizens to discuss the future use (also known as post-closure) at the closed incinerator site off Concord Avenue on the Lexington Town Line.

The meeting to take place on Monday, June 18 at 8 p.m. at Town Hall will seek ideas for future use since whatever is selected will determine the type of “cap” or cover that will secure the contaminated land below the surface. For instance, a “passive” use such as trails will require a less intrusive and less expensive cover than a cap on which a structure is built.

A description of capping by the EPA can be found here.

Uses brought up in the past include a solar farm, trails, municipal use, a location for a skating rink, athletic fields and as a marijuana farm.

A pot far will be eliminated as an option if Belmont voters approve the “opt-out” bylaw in the September special town election. Lexington opened a solar facility on a closed landfill site in May 2017, reportedly saving $19 million in municipal energy expenses. While Belmont Youth Hockey has developed preliminary plans for a two full-sized rink facility on the site, the group has said it prefers to locate the public/private development close to Harris Field on Concord Avenue.

One use that many residents feel will continue is Department of Public Works including the location of its brush and composting piles.

Whatever the selected use is finally determined, it will be years before it is opened as the site is the likely staging area for equipment and material for the construction of the new Belmont High School which will not be completed until the mid-2020s.

With Clock Running, Selectmen Calls A Public Meeting On Incinerator’s Future

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Photo: The entrance to the former Belmont incinerator site.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

With the clock now running on the future of the town’s former incinerator location near the Lexington/Belmont line, the Belmont Board of Selectmen will look to residents to supply some ideas on the site’s future.

“We will need to open it up to the public,” said Adam Dash, Selectmen’s chair. “All of them are clever and really good, but we can only do so much on that site.” Dash added he sees public meetings – much like those held last year on trash collection – sometime in June to gather resident input. The meeting will likely take place on June 9 at the Board’s first scheduled meeting at the conclusion of annual Town Meeting. 

When the town took ownership of the site from the state 11 months ago – the deed for the property was transferred from the state on May 17, 2017 – the state required the town to construct a mitigation plan to remediate the site of contaminated soil and groundwater by “capping” the land polluted by ash produced in the burning of garbage. That work will need to be completed in the next few years.

The 16-acre property is located on upper Concord Avenue and the Rock Meadow Conservation about 1,500 feet from the Lexington town line. Opened in 1959, the incinerator operated until 1975, then becoming the town’s transfer station for decades before the state took control of the land. The Belmont Department of Public Works currently utilizes the site for equipment storage, leaf composting and the placement of debris.

As of fiscal 2016, Belmont had $3.5 million in a reserve account to clean the property.

Suggestions for future use include a dog park, solar farm, bike and recreation path, an expanded DPW operation, and even a marijuana farm. One use discussed in the past few months has been a new town skating rink. 

At its last meeting, the selectmen and Town Administrator Patrice Garvin felt that before capping the site, a specific post-closure usage needs to be decided rather than moving immediately with full site remediation. What will be placed on the site will determine what type of cap is used; a passive recreational use will require a less intrusive barrier than one supporting a building.

“Because if you use all the money to cap it, you won’t have anything left if you want to do a recreational type of use,” said Garvin. 

In the past month, Selectman Mark Paolillo said he and Garvin had met with Belmont Youth Hockey Association which is lining up funding for a proposed facility on the Belmont High School site, to ask if the skating rink “could work” on upper Concord Avenue. 

“It does align with what we are doing at the High School site, so we have to start thinking about this sooner than later,” said Paolillo, who believes the rink could be located at the site, but legal matters remain on whether the facility would qualify as a municipal use which is allowed under the deed. 

Sign, Sealed, Delivered: Incinerator Property Officially Belmont’s

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Photo: Belmont incinerator site on upper Concord Avenue.

Not all milestone events need to accompanied by fireworks or proclamations. Some go by nearly unnoticed.

And one such “quiet” moment occurred this week when the state formally handed over the site of the former town incinerator to Belmont, nearly a year after the process began.

Phyllis Marshall, the interim town administrator, told the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Monday, May 22 the state’s Department of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance – responsible for disposing of state-owned property – recorded the transfer of the deed to the town at the South Middlesex Registry of Deeds on May 17.

The 16-acre property is adjacent to upper Concord Avenue and the Rock Meadow Conservation about 1,500 feet from the Lexington town line. Built in 1959, the incinerator operated until 1975, then becoming the town’s transfer station for decades before the state took control of the land. 

The Belmont DPW currently utilizes the site for equipment storage, leaf composting and the placement of debris.

In January 2014, former Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation sponsored by State Rep. Dave Rogers  authorizing the sale of the state-owned land to the town at a “fair market value.” An important provision of the transfer is future uses of the land is limited to recreational or municipal purposes; it can not be sold or leased for commercial or business operations.

But before the land can be developed, the town must first construct a mitigation plan to remediate the site of contaminated soil and ground water which could include removing or “capping” the soil polluted by ash produced in the burning of garbage.

Marshall told the Belmontonian on Monday 2016, the town has $3.5 million as of fiscal 2016 in a reserve account to clean up the property.

After a blueprint is approved by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and the remediation work completed, the town can move forward on the land’s future.

In November 2014, the Selectmen met with Town Meeting members and the public on possible uses for the former incinerator which included a solar “farm,” sports fields, open space and a future home for Police headquarters or DPW.

Police Hope A ‘Yes’ On Incinerator Site Provides Them With New Home

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Photo: Belmont Police Chief Richard McLaughlin in the hallway that serves as a booking area.

When the Belmont Police Department Headquarters opened in 1931, it was a modern marvel among police stations in Greater Boston, a spacious, three-level facility with an indoor shooting range, a full-service garage, and plenty of room to allow officers to go about their job of keeping residents safe.

But in its ninth decade, the now threadbare building at the corner of Pleasant and Concord Avenue is not just on its last legs; it’s down for the count. Age has caught up with the landmark building across the street from Town Hall, and there’s not much time remaining to find a solution.

“It has served the town well, but it hasn’t kept pace with the times or technology,” said Police Chief Richard McLaughlin last month. “It can’t get any better, and that’s the reality.”

While the deteriorating condition of the building has been a concern for the past 20 years – at one point, the building leaked so freely that during torrential rains streams of water would collect on the walls – a likely solution will come before a Special Town Meeting tonight, Monday, June 13 as the members vote to accept or reject the conveyance from the state the former incinerator site on upper Concord Avenue.

For police leaders, a positive result on tonight’s vote could be the first step in locating a new police station “and that is something we would like to build on,” said McLaughlin.

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Belmont Asst. Chief James MacIsaac at holding cells.

A tour of the station puts into stark focus the challenges facing the personnel who work in a structure opened when Herbert Hoover was president. Around every corner and cranny, in antiquated rooms with Depression-era push button light switches and every spare space, the business of modern law enforcement is running headlong into an intractable past.

The dual liabilities of a cramped working environment (the station is about 15,000 square feet) and an inefficient layout has created a hodgepodge of competing uses. Utility closets are stuffed with boxes of paperwork that the Department are mandated to have on hand while the booking area was cobbled out of a hallway. The wiring and connections that run the department’s communication system are jerry-rigged in a web of cables in a small basement enclave while the evidence locker doubles as storage space for bottled water. It’s a scene only a hardcore hoarder would appreciate.

Personal space: Nil

Caught in the middle are those who work at the facility. Personal space is next to nil for officers as detectives who are located on the second floor (accessible only by a single staircase in violation of federal and state access regulations) are cheek-to-jowl requiring them to leave the room to make phone calls. The men’s changing room is cramped with a feel of a junior high school locker room. 

But it’s the place reserved for female officers – never imagined by the architects who designed the building – that is the greatest cringe-worthy space as the women are squeezed into a rabbit hutch – part storage area, changing room, bathroom facility all in one location – about the size of the men’s bathroom. 

McLaughlin said a recent updating of the public area through the front door has hampered this efforts to impress on the town the department needs a new station house. 

“People come see the lobby and say ‘what’s the problem?’,” said McLaughlin, as he walks around tires placed on in a hall in the basement.

“[The public] don’t understand the operational challenges that we deal with every day,” he noted.

While much of the problems lead to a discomfort for personnel, the building’s lack of modern public safety infrastructure has real world implications such as when a person is “booked” in the building. 

In a contemporary station, a police vehicle enters a secured enclosed area called a “sally port” where the officer will first ensure their weapon and keys before taking the prisoner in the building, removing any temptation to escape or turn on the officer.

But due to the finite parking area in which the building it situated, “we don’t have that luxury,” said James MacIsaac, Belmont’s assistant police chief, demonstrating to a visitor how an officer must escort a prisoner to the station from the parking lot. It is at that point when some arrestees will decide they no longer want to be going to jail. 

“And we had them bolt out to Belmont Center,” said McLaughlin.

Outdated infrastructure places officers, public in potential danger

While the image of a person with their hands cuffed behind their backs running across Leonard Street with officers in hot pursuit may be seen as a humorous event, the lack of up-to-date facility could place officers, the public, and the prisoner in a potentially dangerous position. 

Assistant Chief James MacIsaac said the police department’s needs are similar to those of the Belmont Fire Department that after decades of effort were successful in building two new fire houses ten years ago, but with one important caveat.

“They were not taking civilians into their buildings. They absolutely need the buildings, but we are totally different; we are storing evidence, we have firearms, and we store drugs. We are responsible for the safety of people we bring here and the current building puts all that in jeopardy,” said MacIsaac. 

McLaughlin said the time for town officials and residents to begin serious discussions on the future of a new station with the release of an updated feasibility study issued in February 2016 by Donham & Sweeney Architects. 

Read the feasibility report here.

In a nutshell, the study found that at 14,800 square feet, the current headquarters has become woefully inadequate for the space requirements of a modern police department. The feasibility study calls for more than double the square footage, ideally 30,000 square feet to be a viable building a quarter century in the future.

The report analyzed placing the new headquarters on the incinerator site at a cost of $18.4 million.

If the town moves forward on building the department’s future home, Belmont would join others in updating its police station. This January, Weston opened its 21,000 square feet facility including the shooting range, at a little over $12 million, Malden will enter it’s new 24,000 square foot facility in the fall and Gardner’s new $14 million police station is about 31,000 square feet, replacing the former station with 18,000 square feet.

Many of the new facilities are replacing buildings about 40 years old, half the age of Belmont’s current police headquarters. 

“If the town says the high school is aniquated and that was built in 1971, what are you telling us by not addessing our building that’s twice as old and in much worse shape?” said McLaughlin. 

McLaughlin acknowledges that a new Police Headquarters will be competing with other capital needs such as a DPW facility, a library and other big-ticket items. In past discussions with town officials, a portion of the cost would come from the sale of the existing Concord Avenue police station and the adjacent former Belmont Municipal Light Department for commercial development. And McLaughlin said he would be eminable to share the incinerator site with a new DPW headquarters.

“I’m not saying we’re any more important than anybody else. The unfortunate part is the town hasn’t kept pace with what their projects should have been,” he said. 

State Readies Sale Of Incinerator Site to Town; Special Town Meeting To Accept Land

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Photo: The entry to the former incinerator site. 

It’s been nearly two years in the works but this week, the state is preparing to hand over a former trash incinerator closed for the past five decades back to the town.

The Belmont Board of Selectmen will vote on a date, likely in June, to hold a Special Town Meeting where members will vote whether to accept or reject the conveyance from the state to the town of the nearly 16-acre parcel sitting adjacent upper Concord Avenue and Rock Meadow Conservation about 1,500 feet from the Lexington town line.

“We have received communication that this conveyance is in the process of being executed by [the state] depending on what we have to execute,” said David Kale, Belmont’s town administrator. 

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Once accepted, the town is required by the state to remediate the site which includes removing or “capping” the contaminated soil polluted by the ash produced by the burned garbage. As part of the agreement, the state, through the Department of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance which is responsible for the disposition of state-owned property, will subtract the amount the town spends on remediation from the assessed value of the property.

Belmont in 2006 created a special stabilization account to fund the future “clean-up” of the site. There is currently $4.2 million in the account, according to Kale. 

“The total cost will also depend on post-closure uses,” he said.

The sale has been years in the making. In 2012, as it was considering using the site for athletic fields or other uses, the town discovered ownership of the site had reverted to the state once the incinerator was formally shut down in the early 1980s.

In January 2014, former Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation sponsored by State Rep. Dave Rogers  authorizing the sale of the state-owned land to the town at a “fair market value.” An important provision of the transfer is the land is limited to recreational or municipal use; it can not be sold or leased for commercial or business operations.

Built in 1959, the incinerator operated until 1975, then becoming the town’s transfer station for two decades. It is currently used by the Belmont DPW for equipment storage, leaf composting and debris.

In November 2014, the selectmen held a meeting with  Town Meeting members and the public on possible uses for the former incinerator which included a solar “farm,” sports fields, open space and a future home for Police headquarters or the DPW.

Police HQ Heading for Incinerator Site? Find Out Tonight

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It was just a couple of sentences during a joint meeting held at Belmont Town Hall this past Wednesday, Oct. 29.

But the short statement by Board of Selectmen Chair Andy Rojas introduced a new, and potentially game changing use to the mix of opportunities being proposed for the 16-acre former town incinerator site off upper Concord Avenue.

“There are five to six options including a police station with the capping being discussed,” said Rojas during a meeting with the Selectmen, Capital Budget and Warrant committees, bringing up for the first time a new location for the  Belmont Police Department headquarters.

The state is housed in a threadbare Depression-era building at the corner of Concord Avenue and Pleasant Street across from Belmont Town Hall. The replacement of the headquarters is on the list of capital projects being considered for funding by the Capital Budget Committee and the Board of Selectmen.

On of the last issues facing a revamped headquarters is finding an adequate location. For several years, the Belmont Public Library on Concord Avenue was the likely site for a new station if the town approved contraction of a new library. But three times in the past decades those plans have been scrapped.

The construction of a new headquarters is a high priority of Police Chief Richard McLaughlin.

The possibility of a modern headquarters for the police will be discussed at a precinct meeting tonight, Monday, Nov. 3 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School auditorium.

Constructed in 1959, the incinerator operated until 1975, when it became the town’s transfer station for two decades. It is currently used by the Belmont DPW for equipment storage, leaf composting and placement of debris.

In January, Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation presented by State Rep. Dave Rogers authorizing the sale to the town of the state-owned land. The law allows Belmont to purchase the land after an appraisal determines the fair market value of the property. In addition, the town will be responsible for the site’s costly remediation of environmentally hazardous material.

Some of the possible uses for the site discussed in the past include a solar farm, recreational playing fields, open space, use by the Highway Department and even a marijuana plantation to supply the medical marijuana industry.

 

Open Space? Solar Farm? Marijuana Grove? What to Do With Belmont’s Former Incinerator Site Meeting Nov. 3

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New recreational playing fields.

A new home for the Department of Public Works.

A solar photovoltaic farm.

Open space.

A grove for growing medical marijuana.

Those are just a few of the suggestions citizens and town officials put forward for the future use of the former town incinerator located off Concord Avenue near the Lexington town line with Belmont.

With the state prepared to sell the nearly 16 acre parcel to the town, the Belmont Board of Selectmen will be updating Town Meeting members and the public on possible uses for the former incinerator at a presentation and discussion set for Monday, Nov. 3 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School auditorium.

The public and Town Meeting members are encouraged to provide their ideas for the best use for the land, according to a press release for the board.

The town is moving forward on a new use after Gov. Deval Patrick in January signed legislation pushed by State Rep. Dave Rogers that authorizes the sale to the town of the state-owned land. The law allows Belmont to purchase the land after an appraisal determines the fair market value of the property. In addition, the town will be responsible for the site’s costly remediation of environmentally hazardous material.

An important provision of the law is the land is limited to recreational or municipal use; it can not be sold or leased for commercial or business operations.

Constructed in 1959, the incinerator operated until 1975, when it became the town’s transfer station for two decades. It is currently used by the Belmont DPW for equipment storage, leaf composting and placement of debris.

Questions and ideas can be submitted prior to the meeting at selectmen@belmont-ma.gov . More information on the meeting can be found by contacting the Board of Selectmen/Town Administrator’s office at 617-993-2610.