Heustis Farm Grew on Uplands Site

 Historic Preservation, July 2015, Newsletter  Comments Off on Heustis Farm Grew on Uplands Site
Jul 152015
 
Heustis Farm Grew on Uplands Site

By Anne-Marie Lambert This article is the second in a series of articles about the history of the Belmont Uplands. For Part 1, see “Uplands Area Transformed Over Centuries” in the September/October 2014 Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter. We don’t know how exactly how Warren Heustis of Putney, Vermont met Lucy Ann Hill of West Cambridge (now Belmont). We do know they married in 1845, and that Warren brought farming skills to Belmont that would turn “useless swamp land” into one of the best performing farms in Belmont, the Heustis Farm. This is their story. Today it is hard to imagine [READ MORE]

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Town Meeting Votes $100K for Path Study

 Bike Paths, July 2015, Newsletter  Comments Off on Town Meeting Votes $100K for Path Study
Jul 102015
 
Town Meeting Votes $100K for Path Study

By Meg Muckenhoupt On June 3, Belmont Town Meeting approved $100,000 for a feasibility study for a Community Path, a shared-use path for walkers, joggers, bicyclists, in-line skaters, and other non-motorized travel. According to Russell Leino, chair of the Community Path Implementation Advisory Committee (CPIAC), it will work on a request for proposals over the summer and expects to engage a design/engineering firm to carry out the study this fall. The results should be available in spring 2016. “Once the feasibility study is in hand, the next step is to make recommendations to the Board of Selectmen based on that,” [READ MORE]

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What is the Future of McLean’s Open Land?

 Historic Preservation, July 2015, Newsletter, Open Space  Comments Off on What is the Future of McLean’s Open Land?
Jul 102015
 
What is the Future of McLean’s Open Land?

By Sue Bass Piece by piece, the remaining open land in Belmont is being protected—or developed. The Belmont Uplands were bulldozed. The town’s last farm has been saved, protected by Lydia Ogilby and her family with an agricultural restriction. A dozen houses are filling what used to be two six-acre estates off Concord Avenue on Belmont Hill. But nearby open space is covered by conservation restrictions, thanks to descendants of the Claflin-Atkins family that once farmed the land, particularly the late Anne Allen. The fate of two major open areas remains undetermined. Officers of the Belmont Country Club insist that [READ MORE]

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Mugar Site Plans May Mean More Flooding

 July 2015, Newsletter, Open Space, Stormwater  Comments Off on Mugar Site Plans May Mean More Flooding
May 122015
 
Mugar Site Plans May Mean More Flooding

Along the north side of Route 2 in East Arlington lie seventeen acres of wetlands almost entirely in the 100-year floodplain. Despite its potential for flooding, this parcel has been the subject of various development proposals over the years. Recently Oaktree Development of Cambridge showed Arlington town officials a preliminary sketch of a proposed 219-unit housing development on the parcel owned by the Mugar family and adjacent to the Alewife Reservation. The Oaktree developer intends to invoke the state Chapter 40B statute to circumvent certain local permitting processes and bylaws by including a certain percentage of affordable housing in the [READ MORE]

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