Residents Share Vision for Everett Waterfront Park at Design Session

By Neil Zolot

About 35 people attended a design charrette citizen input and feedback session on the proposed waterfront park adjacent to a planned soccer stadium on Alford Street to provide developers with feedback on various ideas, at City Hall on Thursday, July 23. “It was great to see community engagement,” Mayor Robert Van Campen said. “My goal all along was to increase community engagement.”

The session was specifically about the park, not the stadium, which will host New England Revolution soccer games. In the Keverian Room, easels were set up with maps and pictures representing Park Program Opportunities and Priorities. Adjacent to the easels were magic dots and mini Post-It notes attendees could use to indicate their preferences and leave comments.

Among the nine options for priorities, More Interaction with the Waterfront and Opportunities for Education and Demonstration each received 12 dots, followed by Increased Shade and Comfort with 10, Areas for Community Events, 9, More Opportunities for Sports and Recreation, 8, More Opportunities for Local Gathering, 5, Interest in a Nature-Based Environment, 4, More Opportunities to Relax, 2, and Diverse Programming, 0.

That dovetails with preferences on 16 options for Programming Opportunities, including 8 each for a kayaking dock and a movie/performance area; 5 each for a stage area and a great lawn; 4 each for a boat dock, a natural shoreline, natural plantings, food trucks and a picnic area; 3 each for a fishing area, hammock grove, an overlook and a farmers’ market and 2 each for a misting station and shaded areas. Some of the Post-It notes indicated the need for public restrooms and that a misting station is an inefficient use of water.

More specifically, Rebecca Kelley of Everett Community Growers said she is “looking for options for community space and a diversity of activities. My desire is it reflect the cultural diversity in Everett.”

She also likes the idea of a space that could be used for education for school field trips or discussions on the environment and the history of the waterfront for adults. She also thinks developers and planners should work with nonprofit groups on the layout and programming for the park.

Chris Mancini of Save the Harbor / Save the Bay said he is excited about a harbor walk and access to the shoreline. “I want to see the park connected to the harbor walk,” Everett resident Derek Shooster agreed. He said he’d also like to see some commercial development in the park so people could enjoy a meal looking out on the Mystic River.

Everett resident Jarod Evenson said he is interested in a kayak dock and spaces for passive recreation, like reading or just relaxing. To do so now he goes to areas along the Malden River in Medford, while many others go to Mary O’Malley Park in Chelsea.

Everett resident David Acevedo also feels access to the waterfront is important and likes the idea of an area for performances.

The dimensions, footprint and orientation of the stadium will dictate some aspects of the park design, but, by law, it has to be at least 100 feet from the shoreline. Asked whether the site would be a stadium with a park around it or a park with a stadium in it, Revolution vice-president of marketing and public relations Cathal Conlon answered it would be a park with a stadium in it. “We don’t want it to be a stadium on the waterfront, we want it to be a waterfront stadium,” he said. “We want to engage with the water.”

He added that the area will be Everett’s new front door.

Everett’s Director of Planning & Development, Matt Lattanzi, added that there will be no deliberate attempt to hide the stadium the way other proposed developments like a battery storage facility would be hidden by trees and colored in neutral shades to be as inconspicuous as possible. “It will be aesthetically pleasing, but you don’t want to hide it,” he said. ”Plantings will be complementary.”

Conlon was pleased with the tone of the evening. “There was great energy in the room,” he felt. “It seems people were engaged.”

A similar but more focused design charrette is scheduled for Thursday, August 13, at which time developers and planners will present a Preferred Design Concept based on information from July 23. “This park will only succeed if it’s what the community wants,” Conlon said. “We want what the community wants. We know how to run a sports team, but don’t know how to program public spaces.”