It’s off-season for the Morses Pond beach, but Wellesley town departments and elected or appointed bodies have been diving into topics in recent months that will have a huge impact on the popular recreation area’s future.
Plans to replace and relocate the Morses Pond bathhouse for usability, accessibility and aesthetics have been underway since before the pandemic, and then delayed because of the pandemic and other town capital projects, while the Morses Pond parking lot area has separately become a focus point of discussions on where a dedicated pickleball recreation area might be located. All of this is taking place against a backdrop of Wellesley figuring out how it might reuse parts of the roughly 46-acre North 40 property adjacent to Morses Pond that the town agreed in late 2014 to buy from Wellesley College for $35M.
The Natural Resources Commission (NRC) in early October (see Wellesley Media recordings for Oct. 3 and Oct. 17) shared updates on the seemingly endless planning for a revamped bathhouse and beach area project that would entail removing the outdated existing bathhouse and building a new one on the opposite side of the beachfront. A new development in this plan is a proposed supplemental feasibility study in the wake of recommendations issued by the Morses Pond Beach Advisory Committee, which was formed following Annual Town Meeting and includes members from the NRC, Recreation, the Select Board, and more. An initial feasibility study was already completed as part of the town’s usual feasibility-design-construction process, with $175K approved for the study by 2021 Annual Town Meeting.
Meanwhile, the Recreation Commission hashed out the latest on the Morses Pond plan at its Oct. 8 meeting (see Wellesley Media recording), and separately, held both online and in-person meetings about the latest pickleball study findings (see Wellesley Media recording of the in-person meeting). The beach and pickleball studies have been done by different teams at ubiquitous consultant Weston & Sampson, and are not unrelated—for example, the parking situation of one would impact the other.
Let’s not forget the Community Preservation Committee either. This group, which vets ways for the town to spend monies from the Community Preservation Act surcharge on property taxes, most recently discussed the Morses Pond beach project and the need for a supplemental feasibility study at its Oct.9 meeting (see Wellesley Media recording about 24 minutes in). Town Meeting in March approved using $925K in CPC funds for design work and construction documents on the Morses Pond bathhouse project, which in all is heading north of a $9M endeavor with construction costs only climbing as delays mount. A timeline shared as part of the Annual Town Meeting presentation showed construction on the project taking place between March 2026 and March 2027, but that was predicated on a schedule including Special Town Meeting funding and other steps taking place.
The Morses Pond bathhouse project had initially been led by the Wellesley Recreation Department, though the NRC, which is the land owner, has now taken the lead on the project. Some confusion over this has been clear from discussions at recent town government meetings, including at the Oct. 9 CPC meeting, but members of the elected Recreation Commission conceded at their Oct. 8 meeting that the NRC is now steering things.
“We’ve been facilitating the process to this point in time,” said Recreation Commission Chair Paul Cramer at that meeting, “But it seems to me at some level Rec is kind of no longer the facilitator of this process. It seems that the NRC is now because… we’re not the ones who either have the expertise to answer these environmental questions nor are we the ones who will have the final say on whether or not they are adequately addressed.”
Fellow commissioner Mark Wolfson concurred, and said the town’s Permanent Building Committee (PBC) and Facilities Maintenance Department (FMD) would be managing the project, which would need to support Recreation Department programs. The town’s Recreation Department and Commission have been supportive of the relocated Morses Pond bathhouse, which they have said would work well operationally for their programs.
The NRC’s Jay McHale broke the news about the proposed supplemental feasibility study at that group’s Oct. 3 meeting following agreement by the NRC and Rec Commission that all or most recommendations from the Morses Pond Beach Advisory Committee should be addressed. Following a meeting with facilities personnel about the Beach Advisory Committee recommendations, McHale said issues related to everything from site circulation to utilities and wetlands impact to recreation program storage were raised. “They said there were too many things that needed to be addressed before PBC could take a look at it” in the design phase, he said. (The need for more feasibility work was foreshadowed at a June 13 PBC meeting at which the NRC’s McHale shared an update.)
Thus the recommendation for a supplemental study to address the issues raised by the Beach Advisory Committee. Questions remain where funding for that study would come from depending on how much it will cost (a scope of work draft has begun making the rounds). Though McHale recommended the NRC put $150K in its budget (hopefully covered by the CPC) and seek Town Meeting approval in the spring. “It’s going to put a bit of delay on trying to get things to move forward… it’s unfortunate, but it’s also the right thing to do,” he said.
Some in the process have asked about whether the contingency portion of the $925K in funds approved at Town Meeting could be used to pay for some or all of the supplemental study and avoid the need to ask Annual Town Meeting in the spring.
Joe Schott is a Morses Pond neighbor who opposes using Morses Pond land for pickleball but enthusiastically supports the Morses Pond beachfront renovation. On the bathhouse project, however, he has grown frustrated with the process, regularly raising his concerns during citizen speak at meetings and corresponding separately with the town bodies and departments involved. He’s looking for the NRC, Recreation Commission, and FMD to hammer things out.
Schott told the Recreation Commission at its Oct. 8 meeting that he was “really at a loss to understand” how a project overwhelmingly supported at Town Meeting is now being rethought following the Advisory Committee meetings in a way that could cost the town more money and delay the project by a couple more years. At the start of the NRC’s Oct. 17 meeting, Schott commented that he’s concerned the Beach Advisory Committee’s recommendations are taking the process back to the first phase when topics such as the number of bathrooms and building location were addressed. “That’s what’s going to drive up the cost of this if we have to go backwards,” he said.
The Morses Pond beach project is on the NRC’s Nov. 7 agenda, so expect an update on the proposed supplemental feasibility study tonight.
