The idea is that buildings at the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center will be reused one day - some possibly for housing.
With that in mind, a committee charged with coming up with a reuse plan for the Fernald land yesterday toured the former Foxborough State Hospital property, where buildings have been renovated and converted by developer VinCo Properties into luxury condo-style apartments called Chestnut Green.
The apartments are part of a 93-acre complex, which features 203 residential units - including some single-family homes - as well as office and retail space. Some 50 acres was given to the town for recreational fields.
Mayor Jeannette McCarthy said the 15-member Fernald Reuse Committee used the city's trolley to take yesterday's field trip.
McCarthy, who serves as chairwoman of the committee, said the old Foxborough Hospital buildings are Queen Anne style structures, the same architecture found at Fernald.
But the mayor did say the Foxborough site is different in several ways from Fernald.
She said buildings at Fernald are scattered throughout the site, while the structures at Foxborough were located in one section.
"Foxborough had no retail at all around that area," McCarthy said. "So (the developer) tailored it to community needs."
Also, she said the buildings at the Foxborough site were in worse shape before being renovated, because the hospital had been closed for about a decade. Fernald is still in operation, although the state plans to close it by July 2010.
McCarthy said the "key difference (in Waltham) is Trapelo Road" where Fernald in located.
State officials have said they would like to see some housing at Fernald, perhaps as many as 250 to 300 residential units - a mixture of affordable and market rate housing - and 150 units as part of some type of institutional or health care facility.
However, local members of the Reuse Committee balked at the proposal, one that McCarthy said "went over like a lead balloon."
McCarthy said that Trapelo Road could not take the additional traffic burden that a large-scale development would bring.
The Reuse Committee will hold a public hearing on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. to give residents a chance to have their say about the reuse plan for Fernald.
Richard Conn can be contacted at 781-398-804 or rconn@cnc.com.
