Waltham City Council Hosts Hearing On Fernald Developmental Center

News release from The People's Fernald.

The Waltham City Council will host a citizen input hearing on the fate of the former Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center property, on Wednesday March 27 at 6 pm at Government Center, 119 School St.

The meeting is the result of public pressure by the People’s Fernald, a citizen advocacy initiative that has pushed for a transparent redevelopment process at the 196-acre national historic register property. The group has hosted multiple community forums in recent months, providing community education to hundreds of Waltham residents about the historic property whose fate has been shrouded in secrecy amid multiple scandals in recent years.

Attendees intend to call on the city to halt its current efforts to construct an amusement park at the edge of the grounds; commit to a sitewide investigation into the possibility of unmarked graves at the property; and open up a transparent, accountable community process after a decade of secrecy and political giveaways at the site.

“My neighbors are troubled by the absolute lack of transparency at the Fernald. Overnight, the City moves the DPW City Yard to the Fernald and then bulldozes a sledding hill. The people of Waltham deserve a clear master plan, budget and input to the process,” George Darcy, a neighbor and a member of the People’s Fernald Working Group.

Calls to hold a citizen input hearing were initially rejected by numerous City Councillors including Council President John McLaughlin, the Ward 4 Councilor who represents the Fernald, who chaired the Council’s Ad-Hoc Fernald Committee for several years, during which time, millions of dollars in property damage occurred at the site.

The first public institution for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the center closed in 2014. In recent months it has been mired in scandal following revelations that the City of Waltham allowed vandals to ransack tens of thousands of patient records left behind by the Commonwealth and spent millions of dollars of taxpayer money intended for preservation to demolish historic buildings at the site.

In recent weeks, Waltham has again come under fire, this time from its own Conservation Commission, which alleges that the City is knowingly filling in existing wetlands to build an amusement park at the edge of the campus and provided insufficient and inaccurate documentation in an attempt to continue filling in the wetlands.

The City of Waltham purchased the site from the Commonwealth in late 2014. It entered into a series of preservation agreements at the time, promising wetlands restoration, flooding mitigation, sitewide security, and historic preservation of the site’s dozens of then-usable structures. Few of those conditions were ever met.

The People’s Fernald Working Group consists of a small group of concerned Waltham residents that have come together because of their concerns. The members of the group are Jonathan Paz, Former Ward 9 City Councillor, George Darcy, Former Ward 3 City Councillor, Diana Young, Former Chair of the Community Preservation Committee, Lizzie Gelles, and Nina Udwin.