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ARLINGTON

Residents to weigh in on park plan

By David Desjardins, Globe Correspondent, 6/6/2002

Robbins Farm Park - a mecca for sledders in winter and for fireworks viewers in summer - has been the focus of some intense brainstorming for the past couple of years, and tonight residents get a chance to add their own ideas at a public hearing on plans for the park's redesign.

The architectural firm Carol R. Johnson and Associates will present its plans for the park at 9 p.m. at the Arlington Senior Center, at the intersection of Academy and Maple streets.

Also at the senior center, residents at 7 p.m. will learn details of another town project, the planned improvements to the Spy Pond shoreline.

Spilling down alongside Eastern Avenue in the Arlington Heights section, 11-acre Robbins Farm Park is best known for its panoramic view of Boston, but its ball fields, hills, and playground also attract families from a number of communities. Along with Spy Pond and Menotomy Rocks Park, town officials count Robbins Farm among its top multiuse facilities with townwide appeal.

''The fact that the park is so accessible and dramatic makes it very popular,'' said Don Vitters, commissioner of Parks and Recreation. ''It offers such spectacular views of the Boston skyline, people would come for just such views.''

But the decrepit condition of some of its features - a set of weed-ridden, crumbling tennis courts, for one - have prompted neighbors of the 60-year-old park to work with town officials to develop a comprehensive plan for its redesign.

The nucleus of the group that became Friends of Robbins Farm Park began the process in 1998, meeting with Parks and Recreation officials, and then commissioning the Radcliffe Seminars program to propose plans for the park, three of which went on display at the town library.

Landscape architect Andrew Leonard was then hired to continue the process, and his master plan for the site was also on view at the library. Carol R. Johnson and Associates refined the plan into the redesign that residents will get a look at tonight.

Under the plan, construction would proceed in three parts. The first phase, targeted for this fall, would replace the 12-year-old playground on its present site.

The playground's signature feature - its hill-length slides - would be kept. A steel picket fence and gates would be built alongside Eastern Avenue, and farther uphill, boulders would be placed and trees planted along the road to prevent vehicles from driving into the park.

Residents may be enlisted to help build the playground, Vitters said. The Department of Public Works would also begin breaking up the existing tennis courts.

The second phase, proposed for autumn of 2003, would include an irrigation system and turf improvement to the park's baseball diamond and two soccer fields.

The third phase - which would be put off until 2006 to allow the town to focus on the renovation of other playgrounds and fields - includes an orchard and a paved court for enjoying the park's vista; a relocated half-court basketball surface; an area for picnicking and, in winter, ice-skating; and an interpretive area dedicated to the site's former use as a farm.

Jen Rothenberg, president of Friends of Robbins Farm Park, said that the 125-member group is pleased with the design.

''We've been trying to pull the community in, and get a sense of what people want to have happen there,'' said Rothenberg. ''The idea was to retain the open feeling of the park; it's a real gem.''

The project is budgeted at about $948,000. Some of that funding will be requested at Town Meeting this month.

''We have to focus on putting pressure on the town to continue to allocate money for the project,'' said Rothenberg. In addition, she said, her group is working on a fund-raising campaign, seeking private donations to supplement the town's outlay.

After tonight's session, the landscape architect will make final revisions and prepare specifications for the work, after which the town will seek bids from contractors.

At Spy Pond, town officials have planned a number of changes for a land that lies between the northern shore of the pond and a portion of the Minuteman Bikeway. Vitters said the Spy Pond shoreline renovations are expected to cost about $1.095 million.

Erosion caused by runoff from the bike path and roads - combined with damage from ducks and geese and the heavy foot traffic of people feeding the birds - has harmed the pond's banks.

''If you go there now,'' Vitters said, ''it's a very barren site. Because of the geese population, there is very little grass on the site.''

The proposed redesign, also done by Carol Johnson and Associates, uses low barrier fences along the shore. The fencing would allow people access to the shore at specific points on small dock-like platforms, and permit vegetation between those access points to grow back along the banks. The design offers much the same type of protection being used for long sections of shoreline along Concord's Walden Pond.

Officials also hope to relocate a traffic turnaround circle further away from the pond to recover more green space. Drainage throughout the site would also be improved, a path through the park would be reconstructed, an emergency boat ramp will be built, and new picnic tables and benches would be installed.