Natick Report

More than you really want to know about Natick, Mass.

Meaningful Connections Memory Café, in Natick on May 18

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A Meaningful Connections Memory Café will be held on Thursday, May 18 from 11:30am-1pm at the Natick Community-Senior Center (117 E. Central St). This is a welcoming environment for individuals living with memory loss and their care partners.

Entertainment will be provided by Stephen McGovern, who will perform hits from Louis Armstrong to Frank Sinatra and the big band era.

Registration is required by May 15. Please call Debbie Budd at 508 647 6540 ext. 1906

‘Back to the drawing board a little bit’ on Pond Road senior living pitch

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Proponents of a senior living plan for 200 Pond Rd. have pulled back on a Natick Spring Annual Town Meeting citizen petition for a zoning change that could have paved the way for such a facility.

Attorney George Richards told the Natick Finance Committee on April 6 that after meetings with neighbors and town officials “we’ve kind of heard loud and clear, and we’ve gone back to the drawing board a little bit, and we’re going to reassess the project going forward.” In Town Meeting speak, the proponent asked for the Article 30—”Expansion of Assisted Living Overlay Option Plan (ALOOP)”—to be referred back to the sponsor, and the Finance Committee complied.

So don’t expect this article to be on the agenda for Town Meeting, which starts on April 25.

The proponents of the Article have marketed their idea and fielded questions at a handful of meetings in recent months. This has included meetings with neighbors, the Council on Aging, the Rotary Club, the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce, and others.

The proponents heard an earful from residents, largely neighbors, at Planning Board meetings in February and March, and the Board voted against favorable action on the article. While some residents argued in favor of more options for assisted living and memory care, the majority of neighbors who spoke were against the plan.

Those against the plan argued that it wasn’t a good fit for the neighborhood, would increase traffic on a narrow and often beat-up road, and would wreck the environment. Some neighbors put together a petition against the article. The March 15 Planning Board meeting even included a rare public meeting appearance by a member of the Hunnewell family, speaking against the plan, citing traffic and environmental concerns.

The proponents sought the zoning change so that they might build an assisted living and memory care facility called 200 Pond Road…to be located fittingly enough at 200 Pond Road on the Natick/Wellesley line. They frequently referred to the “bucolic” setting as ideal for assisted living and memory care residents, and shared data supporting the need for more such facilities in the area given the age of local residents. They shared design intentions, such as leaving the current entrance untouched and putting most parking under the building, that aim to nestle the project in the setting in as unobtrusive a way as is possible.

This 130-unit facility would be about a mile down the road from the new Anthology senior living facility in Natick on Rte. 135, and in fact, the executive director of that facility spoke in opposition to Article 30 at the March 15 Planning Board meeting. He said the pie for senior living facility business wouldn’t get bigger, but rather, that slices would get smaller for those offering services.

We broke news about this project last July, when the preliminary plan was to call the facility Wellesley Senior Living.

200 pond road

 

200 Pond Rd. is a Wellesley address that leads into a long driveway and property located in Natick atop the scenic road that cuts between Rte. 16 and Rte. 135. Overall, the area covers about 10 acres, more than half in Natick. A humungous (10,000 sq. ft.) home sits on the property.

The previous owner of this land previously sold adjacent property to a developer who built 2 houses near the top of Pond Road. Because the property is located on a scenic road, the development was met with concern from town officials and neighbors, and the eventual homes built were considerably smaller than the ones first proposed to Wellesley.

Meaningful Connections Memory Café, in Natick on April 20

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A Meaningful Connections Memory Café will be held on Thursday, April 20 from 11:30am-1pm at the Natick Community-Senior Center (117 E. Central St). This is a welcoming environment for individuals living with memory loss and their care partners.

Entertainment will be provided by Tom Madden, who will perform hits from Sinatra to current artists.

Registration is required by April 17. Please call Debbie Budd at 508 647 6540 ext. 1906

 

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Wellesley Neighbors (and Natick, too!) information session—March 23rd

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Wellesley Neighbors

Are you retired or retiring in the near future?  As an older adult, have you decided to remain in your community, active and engaged? Wellesley Neighbors is a nonprofit, membership organization for couples and singles aged 60 and older who seek new friends, activities and support. Members live in Natick, Wellesley, Dover, Needham, and Weston, with a few from Framingham, Sherborn and Holliston. Join some of us on Thursday, March 23 at 11am in the Community Room at the Weston Public Library, 87 School Street, Weston. Learn about what we offer and have your questions addressed. If you are unable to join us, obtain information from Joyce Wadlington at director@wellesleyneighbors.org or 781-283-0417, ext. 1.

Natick Planning Board hears zoning change pitch by proponents of 200 Pond Road senior living plan

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A packed Natick Planning Board agenda on Feb. 15 included the latest on an intriguing plan to build an assisted living and memory care facility called 200 Pond Road…to be located fittingly enough at 200 Pond Road on the Natick/Wellesley line.

This facility would be about a mile down the road from the new Anthology senior living facility in Natick on Rte. 135.

The proponent for this Pond Road project has submitted a citizen petition for Natick’s Spring Annual Town Meeting for a zoning bylaw change to expand the town’s assisted living overlay plan to cover this property, and was seeking Planning Board support for it at the meeting. The board heard a brief presentation from the proponent, whose team includes a cast of many, as well as from neighbors, and discussion has been continued to March 1.

We broke news about this project last July, when the preliminary plan was to call the facility Wellesley Senior Living.

200 Pond Rd. is a Wellesley address that leads into a long driveway and property located in Natick atop the scenic road that cuts between Rte. 16 and Rte. 135. Overall, the area covers about 10 acres, more than half in Natick. A humungous (10,000 sq. ft.) home sits on the property.

The previous owner of this land previously sold adjacent property to a developer who built 2 houses near the top of Pond Road. Because the property is located on a scenic road, the development was met with some concern from town officials and neighbors, and the eventual homes built were considerably smaller than the ones first proposed to Wellesley.

200 Pond Rd

 

The proponents of 200 Pond Road made their pitch for this 134-room facility to be situated in “bucolic woodlands” (see Natick Pegasus recording, starting at about the 3-hour, 45-minute mark) by emphasizing benefits to people in need of senior living accommodations and to the town, from tax revenue and building permit fee standpoints. They pointed to the town’s master plan, which calls for more options for senior housing. A lawyer for the proponent said “there are few locations in Natick that were as perfect as this” for the project, suggesting that people will barely notice it being there from a traffic and infrastructure perspective. Information sent to us from the team said the facility would support “the larger community through musical, theatrical, literary, and culinary events like recitals from Billy Joel’s piano teacher, the Yale Whiffenpoofs, and lectures from local professors.”

A handful of neighbors aired their concerns during the meeting, including one resident who argued “it may be the perfect use [of this property] for the companies… it’s not the perfect use for the neighborhood, it would represent a dramatic change to the neighborhood.” Another neighbor aired concerns about whether a seemingly high-end facility like this would actually be out of the price range of Natick residents and possibly be more of a benefit to Wellesley residents (“there’s a lot of money over in Wellesley…”). Other neighbors lawyered up, and their attorney weighed in.

Planning Board members reined in the proponents from presenting too much detail or too many artists’ renderings about their plans, saying this hearing was focused on giving the board a chance to consider whether it wanted to support the citizen petition about the proposed zoning change, not on any project plans. Any such plans would “be taken with a grain of salt” at this point in the process, Board member Terri Evans said.