Move Lowell High School?
Posted: February 4, 2012 Filed under: Politics 13 Comments »
- Lowell High School Pipe Dreams?
October 2010 … urban planner Jeff Speck released a report that suggested that Lowell High School should stay put. However, his argument is weak and unsubstantiated. Apparently, he was steered to his suggestion by the Lowell Plan and other blue ribbon panel style groups.
Whether or not Lowell High School stays or moves to the Cawley Memorial Stadium area is ground zero when considering plans for the future of downtown. It’s a fork in the road, so lets hear your thoughts.
Question: What’s the impact of moving Lowell High School out of downtown, and reprogramming the entire LHS site and physical plant for multi-use such as retail/office/light manufacturing (for example, tear down all buildings on Arcand Dr. side including the dental building and build a Wegmans as anchor tenant on ground level with office/light manufacturing towers above) and residential (for example, renovating the Kirk St. buildings using existing bridges over the canal for access to the commercial side)?
LInk to my radio podcast which outlines a Vision for Downtown
Editor’s Notes: Feel free to express your creativity while being respectful of others. Personal insults will not be published.
George DeLuca produces ComeToLowell.com
My gut feel says no, at least not in the near future. If this is your 2020 vision, then maybe.
I expect such a new school would be in the order of $200M in today’s dollars, and with a reduced school building assistance contribution from the State it would drive Lowell’s debt service through the roof.
And there is a transportation factor, wherein there is a fair amount of options to the downtown for students, a new system of transportation would be required to serve a school on the outskirts of town. That transportation factor applies to getting to after school work places, whereas being downtown provides the students with more immediate opportunities.
Finally, at least in these times, the existing school could become a white elephant, difficult to put on the tax rolls. Already the City is finding it difficult to fill out the Hamilton Canal District, and nothing is on the horizon for the property near the arena, a place that is much more readily developed.
Now if you were talking about bars and nightclubs moving out of the downtown, that may be an initiative whose time is ripe!
Editor’s Note: I added a link to my podcasts to address the vision question. Their are two 20+ minute radio segments. Joe, I’d like to hear your thoughts after listening. Thanks.
I listened, and learned that indeed this is part of your 2020 (and beyond) vision, so I guess I can be convinced to change my “no” to a “maybe”.
Although I support the idea of expanding the trolley system in the City, I do so with much caution. In looking at the MBTA budget, I find only about 30% of its revenues come from operations, with nearly 70% subsidized from local assessments, sales tax and a special “contract assistance” from the MA DOT. It would be a grave error to replicate that business model in Lowell.
But let’s assume that a viable economic model can be developed for transportation. I believe your goal is to use that as a catalyst for further economic development, and relocating the high school is an essential part of that plan. That brings us to the added cost to do so. It seems that in the podcast you attempt to answer that question by postulating that half the high school would be torn down anyway (the Speck plan?), so that it is a moot question. But that is not a given. And the remote location of the high school, although freeing up valuable space downtown, will have its own issues such as the student transportation and work availability that I previously discussed.
To conclude, I now see that you are looking far ahead and planting the seeds for what may become a significant game-changer for the City. But I would like to see a more detailed economic model of the whole system before committing to major changes.
No, no and more no. That dental building is my optomotrist’s office, the Masons might have a lot to say about that as that is their parking lot for functions. Cawley Stadium would require massive amounts of costly busing., Have you ever seen the number of buses coming out of the high school at 2:30 , or the kids that walk?
No…unless we somehow found the budget to build an east and west high school. This would help mitigate the transportation issues and help with the complaints that the abnormally large LHS is easy for kids to get lost in the crowd in.
In my dream vision, we could do away with an issue I see with the trolley – that is, the train station being at the end of the line with nothing else of interest within sight – by locating a train depot where the high school addition is. There is room along the already standard-grade tracks to fit an idling train there easily. That would also be a great location for retail, and the old building, with a parking garage right across the street, would fit a great atrium for small shops and offices with the old old building making a nice professional office.
I’ve added a link on the post to the Lowell Plan’s Jeff Speck report that pertains to the Lowell High School question, so you can also comment on his recommendations directly. Please read it closely and give us your thoughts.
Please note: it’s in his recommendations to tear down all LHS buildings along Arcand Drive and on that side of the canal. He also says to tear down the medical building because of lack of land to expand the school to current standards of accredidation.
As a resident of Belvidere can someone show us where the land is that the proposed
school would be built on. Sure sounds like another pipe dream. We have a skating rink, soccer fields, softball field, field hockey
not to mention the stadium and parking lot. Does this impact the Stoklosa baseball field? We have enough issues at night regarding Cawley Stadium.
CIB,
Have no fear, no school is near!
I graduated LHS in 1980 and have lived in Lowell my entire life. When the field house was being proposed in the late 70′s that location was mentioned then to move the school.
Like the Charter Change Issue here in Lowell this comes up every 10-20 years and NOTHING ever happens. In this economy there is 2 chances for a New High School to be built there. Slim and NONE!
That’s right $70,000 later, and all we have are pipedreams. The spirit of the post is to provide a forum for residents to express their thoughts about what it would take to offer a state of the art high school for Lowell’s future students.
Downtown isn’t working out anymore.
According the Jeff Speck, there’s plenty of suitable land at the Cawley site. Is he wrong?
Unless hes talking a portable classroom in the Cawley Stadium parking lot i dont
see any land. Maybe he is thinking theHoly Ghost land or the land leading to Clark Road,
i believe belongs to Demoulas.
My sense is yes, Jeff Speck was referring to land adjacent to the Cawley Sports and Recreational Complex, which would could involve land purchases or takings by eminant domain.
Let the neighbors near the stadium know as soon as it breaks as we will all put our houses
on the market for sale.We have enough traffic as it is not to mention the influx of school buses.
Belvidere, no need to put your house on the market yet, an initiative of this sort might take 10 years if it was decided to go in that direction. This post has more to do with understanding what the City has planned to maintain the accreditation of Lowell Hight School. What is the status of the decision making process? Who’s making the decisions? Is there a timetable?