Town’s consultants recommend use of Woodward as municipal building/community center and Town House as Library annex

Above: Described as “phase zero” of Town’s analysis, consultants studying the Town’s space needs and options recommended a plan to completely repurpose two Town owned buildings.

Last week, several Town Committees heard the results of a Space Needs Study conducted for the Town. Consultants reported options and their recommendation for how best to house Town Departments and services. The recommendation was for a project to reutilize municipal buildings.

Throughout the meeting, Capital Planning Committee Chair Jason Malinowski repeatedly stressed the importance of community dialogue and partnering with the Town departments to hash out any issues. He stated that it will take “significant public vetting and ultimately Town Meeting funding for anything more to happen”. 

Introducing the presentation, he cautioned:

the images, options, etc are very preliminary – and this should be considered a phase zero of any analysis.

Capital’s consultants then proceeded to walk through six options (plus one deemed not viable) before recommending one of them.

The recommended option (#7) is based on renovating the Woodward School building to repurpose it for municipal and community use. It would also repurpose the Town House, including using it as an annex for the Southborough Library.

Background

The Space Needs Study is a result of the Capital Planning Committee examining the Town’s near and long term capital expense needs. The recommendation is contingent on a project under the School Research subcommittee of Capital Planning and the School Committee.

In fall 2020 they began looking into the possibility of eliminating one of the four K-8 schools based on declined enrollments. Capital and Advisory committees were interested in potential cost savings. Superintendent Gregory Martineau said he wanted to reduce the number of school transitions for elementary students. They identified Neary as seeming to have the most potential for adding more students and Woodward as the most logical option for eliminating from the school inventory. (You can read more background here.)

The School Committee previously approved the administration’s submission of a Statement of Interest to the Mass School Building Authority to pursue a project related to Neary. As part of the process, the MSBA asked the Town to analyze what they would do with the Woodward building if they no longer used it as a school.

According to Keturah Martin, the School Committee’s rep on that subcommittee, they have also been looking into options for still pursuing a project if the MSBA timeline isn’t viable.** She said they will be reporting their findings to the School Committee on February 9th.

Recommendation

As for the specific recommendation by the consultant working for the Capital Committee, it calls for:

• Renovating Woodward to relocate the Senior Center and all Town Departments (except for the Dept of Public Works, Public Safety and the Library) into the building
• Relocating the Superintendent’s office for the public schools (currently housed at Neary)
• Repurposing the Town House to use as an annex to the Library for the Library’s expanded needs (e.g., the Children’s Library and programs) and some shared conference room and storage use.
• Expanding the DPW building (a step also shown in all other 6 options)
• Disposing of South Union Building (a step also shown in all other “valid” options)* and Cordaville Hall (current location of the Senior Center)

The plans were based on DRA Architects’ study of the Town departments’ current and future needs for square footage. They were designed to cover worst case scenarios for growth. They also took into consideration that some departments should be together for efficiency and some should be located in a central part of town.

Reactions

Stakeholder committees noted a need to reflect on the recommendations, discuss them, then come back with comments. However, there were some initial questions and concerns voiced. Below are some highlights.

Capital member Jeffrey Hark asked if DRA had researched the cost considerations for each scenario. Project Manager, Courtney Southwick said that they had only looked at the preliminary costs for the recommended option. There was a huge range of potential costs, since existing conditions of the building haven’t been investigated.

Hark said that weighing the cost of options should be a factor. DRA Principal Ken Best agreed with Malinowski’s assessment that repurposing the school would be at least 20-25% less expensive than building something new elsewhere to accommodate some of the Town’s needs.

The consultants said that no departments had objected to their assessment of the amount of space needed. But they acknowledged that there was “some concern” from the Library about splitting their space. They noted that a state grant process for a Library addition project could take 10-20 years. In the meantime, the Town House’s proximity was pitched as a “golden opportunity” for the Library to expand.

Library Trustee Amy Yazdani told the committee that Trustees would probably need to survey their patrons. She noted that splitting services would be difficult for parents of young children who would be forced to schlep them to multiple buildings. She opined it would be disheartening for a large group of their patrons. She also worried about the increase in staffing costs that would be caused by the split. Currently, staff members can cover multiple areas. 

Malinowski acknowledged that the Library annex concept would be one of the details that needs the most discussion with user groups and the community. 

Trustee David Ekburg quoted Congressman Jim McGovern as saying, “You can tell a lot about what a community values by its library.” 

Ekberg described the Library as “bursting at the seams”, but also opined the importance of keeping the Library together. Trustee Janet Maney differed. She opined that extending the Library “to meet the express needs of the community and keeping it in one place are “mutually exclusive”. As horrendous as a split sounds, she believed they needed to explore it. Trustee Chair Marguerite Landry said the Trustees would discuss the issue at their next meeting. (That’s on their agenda for 3:00 pm tomorrow.)

Referring to Ekburg’s quote, Council on Aging Chair Bill Harrington said that you can also tell a lot about the community by the way it treats its elder population.

Harrington voiced concern that the project may not offer enough easily accessible parking for the Senior Center.  The main parking area is in a lower level on the grounds that would be difficult for many of their visitors. The plans called for 34 spaces to be added to the rear of the building, but also used by those accessing Youth and Family Services. Consultants believed that with some investment, more spaces could be added to the rear. There are also spots are also available in front of the school in the bus turnaround area.

Recreation Director Tim Davis was happy that plans included access to a gymnasium. But he was concerned about how spaces designated to be shared between the Senior Center and Rec would be handled. He also wanted to get a tour to better understand the building layout.

Earlier on, School Committee member Kamali Aieka O’Meally asked about the process for determining the Town department’s space needs. She wondered if they examined the increase of online interactions with residents versus in person. DRA’s Ken Best said it had come up in discussions. He said that the Assessors was one department that described a big drop in resident visits. But most Town departments still needed a lot of physical room for visitors.

O’Meally asked if they had incorporated data from the enrollment projection report created for the School Research Committee. It included an overview of population age group trends for the Town. Malinowski answered that the final data had come in too late, but he would share it with them.

School Committee Chair Roger Challen pointed out that 2/3 of the population represented by the NSBORO administration is in Northborough. He raised the concern that relocating the Superintendent’s office to Woodward would make it an even longer trip for them.

Other options

As for the alternative options, three didn’t include use of Woodward, but only two those options were posed as “valid”:

• Option 1 would —
  • Dedicate the Town House to use by the Superintendent’s office and some shared conference space
  • Add a small addition to Cordaville Hall to accommodate the Senior Center, relocated Youth & Family Services, and Facilities Dept
  • Include an addition project for the Library
  • Build (or purchase) a “new/other building” to relocate other Town departments (except for DPW and public safety)
  • Dispose of South Union building*
• Option 3  would —
  • Use the Town House for six Town departments
  • Add a small addition to Cordaville Hall to accommodate the Senior Center, relocated Recreation Department, and Facilities Dept
  • Build (or purchase) a “new/other building” to relocate seven other Town departments and the Superintendents office to an undesignated “new/other” building
  • Include an addition project for the Library
  • Dispose of South Union building*

The invalid option (#2) was ruled out since it was centered on use of the South Union building. Consultants said it’s location far from the center of Town wasn’t ideal, and the condition of the building was an issue.

Once DRA was told to consider the use of Woodward, the consultants identified the following alternative options:

• Option 4 (in the packet)*** would —
  • Renovate Woodward to house all other Town departments (except for DPW and public safety)
  • 4A relocate the Superintendent’s office to Woodward leaving the Town House empty, while 4B uses the Town House for the the Superintendent’s office
  • Include an addition project for the Library***
  • Dispose of South Union building* and Cordaville Hall
• Option 5  would —
  • Use Woodward’s Library for an annex to the Southborough Library
  • Use the Town House for five Town Departments
  • Renovate Woodward to house the Senior Center, all other Town departments (except for DPW and public safety), and the Superintendent’s office
  • Dispose of South Union building* and Cordaville Hall
• Option 6 would —
  • Use Woodward’s Library for an annex to the Southborough Library
  • Renovate Woodward to house the Senior Center and all other Town departments (except for DPW and public safety)
  • Relocate the Superintendent’s office to Town House (or Woodward)
  • Dispose of South Union building* and Cordaville Hall

Next Steps/Learn More

DRA planned to write up a report later this week, which would incorporate some of the feedback from last week. The consultants agreed to a request by Board of Selectmen Chair Lisa Braccio to allow selectmen until Tuesday to submit written comments for inclusion. You can expect to see discussions of the report on future agendas for multiple committees.

You can find more details on the recommendation (and alternative options) in the report here. 

To watch last Thursday’s presentation and discussion, click here.

*Capital Planning may have some ideas for the use of South Union beyond a simple sale. Although not mentioned last night, a subcommittee of the Capital Planning Committee and SHOPC (Southborough Housing Opportunity Partnership Committee) have been looking into possibilities for converting the South Union Building to an affordable housing project – either through private sale or development by the Town. I haven’t yet caught up on what conclusions they have drawn to date. Disposing of South Union was included in all of the six “valid” options presented.

**The MSBA will decide in March whether or not to support partial funding of a Feasibility Study to look at options for a renovation or building project for Neary School. They may deny it for this year’s round of funding. If they do support it, the viability and timeline for a building project partially funded by MSBA would still be uncertain.

The subcommittee has analyzed that the MSBA’s reimbursement for a Southborough project would be about 37%. Walking away from that would be an expensive recommendation. But delays caused by the MSBA timeline come with other expenses to factor in if the Town has to invest in alternative municipal building projects in the interim, plus continued investments in maintaining Neary.

***The version of Option 4 DRA presented on Thursday didn’t include a Library addition, just a renovation. But as shown and described, it appeared to be identical to Option 6.