There are two contrasting views of the thirteen-acre O'Neill property sandwiched between the Metropolitan District Commission reservation at Alewife and Route 2. To some people, it represents natural beauty that happens to have the very practical side-effect of keeping Belmont basements dry (or at least preventing the flooding from being worse). To others, it represents a possible source of cash to keep Belmont's public services afloat.

The land, which lies just north of the MDC's Alewife Reservation, was bought in 1999 from the Arthur D. Little consulting firm by O'Neill Properties, the developer of the office complex at the former Watertown Arsenal. Though cars whiz by on the Route 2 side, O'Neill's thirteen acres are undeveloped. A few steps off Acorn Park Drive and you're in what feels like a wilderness. It is one of the last remnants of the region's historic Great Swamp.
(See related article, History of Alewife.)

A year ago, saving these thirteen acres was a high priority for Belmont's selectmen. In their letter to townspeople in the town's 1999 Annual Report, the selectmen said, "The entire land is environmentally sensitive and critical to the effective stormwater drainage system for Belmont." It is part of the flood plain for the Little River, which carries about 70 percent of Belmont's stormwater runoff. Flooded basements all over town, but especially in the former swampland that is now the Winn Brook section of Belmont, would be even worse if Alewife were not there to soak up the water.

A distinguished committee appointed by the selectmen to study the property recommended preservation of the Belmont Uplands for open space. With the naturalist Stewart Sanders, a member of the Alewife Study Committee, taking the lead, the town talked with the Trust for Public Land about getting assistance in buying the property.

However, the Trust for Public Land can't buy the land as a gift for Belmont; it can only help put together a deal. The price may well be less than the $8 million calculated by a town appraisal. I've heard $5 million as a possibility. But the land's not going to be free, and unless Belmont puts up some money, there seems no prospect of preventing development on that land. The legislature might put money in the MDC budget to expand its adjoining Alewife Reservation, but only if Belmont shows an interest in preserving the land by raising some money.

There was a chance of that last year, after the legislature passed the Community Preservation Act. The act permits a town to vote a property tax surcharge of 1, 2, or 3 percent to create a fund for open space conservation, protection of historic resources, and affordable housing. Each town's money will be partly matched by the state. Since the first $100,000 of a property's assessed value may be excluded from the surcharge, and a town can exempt low-income residents and some senior citizens with moderate incomes, these surcharges need not be burdensome. The maximum 3 percent surcharge would add $150 a year to the average Belmont property tax bill while raising $1.1 million a year. With state matches and a chance of additional state aid, even a 1 percent surcharge might have enabled Belmont to make an offer on the Belmont uplands.

That chance passed in February, at least for a year. The last opportunity to put the Community Preservation Act on the April 2, 2001, town ballot was either a Town Meeting vote by February 26 or a citizens' petition by February 19. Since neither took place, the next chance is to get it on the April 2002 ballot.

Last month's deadlines did not pass without notice. Shortly beforehand, the selectmen discussed how easy it would be to collect signatures to put the Community Preservation Act on the ballot, but they did not do so. Conservation activists who might have mounted such an effort concluded regretfully that the surcharge would not pass without support from the selectmen.

O'Neill Properties Presents New Proposal

Meanwhile, O'Neill Properties has not been idle. Last year the firm repeatedly pressed the Alewife Study Committee with its plans for a 300,000-square-foot office building and a seven-story parking garage west of Acorn Park Drive. Rebuffed by the committee, O'Neill filed with the state for a review under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act. It subsequently withdrew that proposal, but was back at a Planning Board meeting on March 8 with a new proposal, similar but 17 percent smaller.

Is an office building on that site, presumably one scaled back considerably more, the worst thing Belmont could allow for that land? On the face of it, it doesn't seem such a terrible idea. The area where O'Neill proposes to build is comparatively high ground, a low hillock rather than obvious swampland. The project would provide Belmont with additional property taxes without large demands for additional services. O'Neill can fix the stormwater problems somehow. And the traffic would all be on Route 2, wouldn't it?

Traffic Spillover Likely

Those are the arguments presented by those who favor development. But the traffic report submitted by the developers to the Planning Board on March 8 suggests a different conclusion. Traffic near Alewife at rush hours is already so clogged, the study shows, that several intersections, including Lake and Cross streets, are rated F now by traffic engineers. They will get worse over the next five years even if nothing is built. Add thousands of daily car trips generated by new development at Alewife, and it's inevitable that the traffic will spill over onto side streets all over town.

The example of the McLean development suggests that we can't be confident of getting a revenue windfall from Alewife either. Even now, McLean is costing the town hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for inspection personnel and related costs, with no offsetting income. Once construction starts, more revenue will come in but costs are predicted to soar.

"We should not think that development at Alewife is going to solve any of the fiscal problems that the town has," said state Representative Anne Paulsen, who is working to get the entire Alewife region declared an Area of Critical Environmental Concern under state law. "No community has been able to build its way out of financial difficulties. We need to make a decision whether this development at Alewife is really in the interest of Belmont."

- Sue Bass