By Haley ED Houseman

Last week, Somerville presented plans for a redesigned Lincoln Park to the community in an open house-style meeting that shared the plans on which the Board of Aldermen will soon be voting.

The site is over six acres, the largest park in the city, and is opportunity to create a renewable green space near Union Square. The plans address a multitude of issues including flooding, deteriorating infrastructure and utilities, a lack of tree canopy, and out-of-date playgrounds. It also addressed a need for playing fields and a renovated schoolyard for the Argenziano School.

According to a statement as part of the process, the hope was that a “new design will be creative and imaginative and focus on sustainable features while providing a safe and secure environment in which all residents and visitors will celebrate and take joy… that provides a sense of civic grandeur and pride for all residents of the city.”

Arn Franzen, the city’s Director of Park and Open Spaces, says that the planning and design team worked hard with the support of the Mayor’s Office to address these issues, in the plans and with the community. There were also meetings with Argenziano School staff and countless city staffers to address infrastructure issues.

Franzen noted that community involvement was key: “We employed a comprehensive community process. Even though Lincoln Park may be tired and clearly in need of renovation, it is also a much loved and highly valued open space in the city, and it was easy to work with the community to develop the ideas that ultimately shaped the final park design.”

Cheri Ruane is the landscape architect of record for the project. She is a part of the firm Spurr/Weston & Sampson, whose design studio was commissioned to design the project through a competitive bid process with the city. They have worked with the city in locations such as Albion Park, Grimmons Park, North Street/Veterans’s Playground, among others.

The Lincoln Park site is facing a variety of issues with its redesign project, and the plan had to address robust use by “a multi-generational cross section of the community.” In particular, says Ruane, they hoped to address some of the chronic struggles of the park, including the public’s desire for a natural grass field that would sustain heavy use. “The playing field surface in particular was an issue of great contention. Based on current usage the field would require synthetic turf because a natural grass field wouldn’t survive. However, many community members pushed back against the use of synthetic materials in one of Somerville’s largest green spaces.” The architect acknowledged that the desires of locals was paramount, and the problem was solved in part by making adjustments to balance more activities across the city’s green spaces. “The city has relocated 75% of the uses that were previously on Lincoln Park to other sites in order to maintain a healthy natural grass surface on the multi-use field.”

The proposed park budget was submitted to the Board of Alderman and is pending their approval. In the meantime, the team continues to finalize project details. Franzen shared that the Board of Aldermen has been very supportive of the project and approval is expected. The project is scheduled for public bid on February 25, after which contractors will return pricing three weeks later and the city will begin working on an agreement with a construction company. Construction is scheduled to start after school lets out in June.