Arnold expansion no walk in the park

By Shari Rudavsky, Globe Correspondent, 9/28/2003

Charles Sprague Sargent, the first director of the Arnold Arboretum, envisioned a first-class research facility paired with an elegant park that would draw accolades from academics and the public alike.

He did not envision neighbors.

More than 130 years later, Sargent's current successor, Bob Cook, planning for the arboretum's future, finds himself facing opposition from residents whose homes abut an adjacent parcel of land where Cook hopes to build a research laboratory.

The plot in question -- about 15 acres owned by the arboretum behind the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged -- does not lie within the park but across from its Walter Street boundary in Roslindale, in an open tract of land.

For years locals have enjoyed that land, known as Weld Hill, Prouty's Hill, and Puddingstone Hill. Although it's unkempt compared with the neighboring arboretum, many go there to walk their dogs or enjoy its quiet feeling of wilderness.

''It's really sad to see that the one parcel of land that has nothing on it is going to be built on," said Roslindale resident Jane Lewis. ''In 100 years everything will be developed. This is one of the most precious commodities we have, open land."

Agreed her neighbor Lisa Evans: ''To lose that would be to lose a park that our community has valued for 100 years."

At a community meeting last week, Cook responded to those neighbors' concerns, saying that if anything, the space would only improve once the arboretum moves in and cleans up the land.

''You won't lose that park," he said. ''We will make it an attractive site for you."

The public meeting was held as part of the city's process for approving an institutional master plan. According to Cook, the arboretum will spend the next few months exploring siting and building issues, with hopes of completing designs next year and construction by the end of 2005.

Despite Cook's assurances, residents at the meeting exhorted Cook to consider placing the new facility next to one of the arboretum's existing buildings.

But those buildings sit within the arboretum, almost all of which is Boston-owned parkland that Harvard leases for $1 a year, making it off-limits for additional development, Cook said.

The proposed facility, which could be as large as 35,000 square feet, would house four senior scientists and their students, the arboretum's curator and administration departments, greenhouses, growth chambers, and more research space. About 25 to 30 cars would park on the site, Cook said.

With planning still in the early stages, Cook hesitated to put a price on the project, but said it probably would run between $20 million and $30 million, which would come from the arboretum's reserves and fund-raising.

Building the lab will help the arboretum stay current in the world of plant research, which has changed dramatically since Sargent's day, Cook said. Then, its function consisted primarily of collection and cataloging. Modern technologies and the genomics revolution, however, have opened the door for new lines of research. Arboretum scientists might help unravel why some plants unfurl their leaves after a winter's sleep in May and others in April, Cook said; others might investigate what protects Chinese hemlocks from woolly adelgids, insects that are ravaging other hemlock species.

''The arboretum finds itself in the position of looking to the future and saying if we do not invest . . . we will be squandering this resource," Cook said. ''We need to make investments in research facilities that will attract the best scientists."

Some residents praised Cook for keeping alive the ideas promulgated by the arboretum's 19th-century architects, who saw it as part research station, part park.

''What Jamaica Plain gains in this," said resident Doug Reed, ''is it gets to keep a world-renowned research institution and it gets to keep a historic landscape."