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July 26, 2005: Air base plans get the final approval votes Sept. 28, 2004: Tri-Town won’t hire consultant to review plan Sept. 24, 2004 The Patriot Ledger Home Page
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Sept. 28, 2004
SOUTH WEYMOUTH NAVAL AIR STATIONTri-Town won’t hire consultant to review base planThe Patriot Ledger WEYMOUTH – After being accused of extravagant expenditures, officials overseeing the future of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station do not plan to spend a dime analyzing a sweeping redevelopment proposal. Tri-Town Development Corp. Chairman Robert Lundquist said cost-free studies provided by local planning agencies will be used to analyze the facts and figures in a proposal that would turn the base into clustered villages flanked by biotech firms, a golf course and open space. “We plan on trying to avoid expending any money on the analysis,” Lundquist said. “We hope to utilize the resources that are available to us.” Tri-Town Development, a team of representatives from the three towns in which the former base is situated, hired California-based Lennar Partners to plan and carry out the redevelopment. With a corporate proposal on the table that bills itself as an $11.1 million boon to the three towns, local officials also are grappling with how, if at all, to verify those assumptions, and subsequently, how much to invest in the effort. Mayor David Madden said Weymouth cannot simply take such a pivotal proposal at face value. “We will hire the necessary resources if we don’t have the in-house resources,” Madden said. “I also have the personnel to do a review.” Madden said the town’s chief financial officer will analyze the mathematical rationale used to determine Weymouth’s $5.1 million portion of the tax revenue pie. He said planning officials will also examine the proposal. “It’s important as a community to do this on our own,” he said. While Madden said he would not rule out the idea of hiring outsiders to study the plan, not every town has the resources for a full examination. “We don’t have the money to hire a consultant,” Rockland Selectman Jerry Corcoran said. Corcoran said Rockland has not yet decided how, if at all, to analyze the proposal. Local officials agree that unanswered questions remain, such as whether it is feasible to construct a sewer treatment plant on the site, and how to supply more than 500,000 gallons of water each day to the 2,855 homes that would be built by 2017. Some think towns should trust Tri-town, the agency formed to oversee redevelopment of the base, to do just that. Last month, the agency faced criticism of its spending habits, which included almost $1 million for legal fees and tens of thousands of dollars for Internet services. Tri-town member James Lavin, whose wife is an Abington selectman, said the agency will properly scrutinize Lennar’s plan. “I intend to ask questions,” Lavin said, adding that the three towns can air concerns about the plan to Tri-Town Development at upcoming public meetings. Tri-Town officials said they plan to solicit free analysis of Lennar’s proposal from the following agencies:
While Lundquist said he is not opposed to towns conducting independent studies of the plan, he intends by early next week to organize an analysis strategy for the three towns to prevent inefficiencies, such as two towns commissioning the same traffic impact study. “There’s no point in reinventing the wheel,” he said. Jessica Van Sack may be reached by clicking here.
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