Council chooses hockey over housing for former Lawrence School

The site of the former Lawrence Elementary School, 258 Trapelo Road, could become a new city hockey rink.

The Waltham City Council voted unanimously on Monday to give the property to the Recreation Department for the purpose, rejecting a proposal to turn the old school into senior housing. 

Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy initially went before the council in September with two options for the land: look into creating a hockey rink on the 3.8-acre lot or split it into two pieces, turning one half into a hockey rink and the existing building into affordable housing, similar to the city’s work at the former Hardy Elementary School.

The City Council discussed both ideas, and councilors said that the city has a need for both a municipal hockey rink and additional housing.

At the City Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Feb. 2, councilors ran through additional pros and cons of McCarthy’s  proposals. Some voiced concerns about the limited parking and limited space that would come with splitting the lot. Some expressed concerns that the dual housing–rink plan was overambitious. 

“I don’t think we can build the rink that the city of Waltham truly wants [by] splitting this, and I don’t know that the housing would be that good in the long term as well,” said Ward 5 Councilor Joey LaCava.

Councilor-at-Large Colleen Bradley-MacArthur asked McCarthy about the timeline for any housing project at the site, raising concerns that the city’s existing backlog of housing construction projects might push it far in the future.

City’s future access to Veterans rink is uncertain

Waltham is home to the state-owned Veterans Memorial Skating Rink on Totten Pond Road. 

The city is currently 21 years into its 25-year lease with the state and has not yet negotiated any additional lease extensions.

McCarthy told councilors that the state rinks are frequently rented to large private ice companies, which could jeopardize Waltham’s continued access to the Veterans rink. 

She said she is working with state Rep. Thomas M. Stanley to have the state grant Waltham right-of-first refusal on the rink if the state decides to lease it again. However, she said that won’t guarantee the city the lease and would only ensure the city could “be in the running” for it.

Councilors were emphatic about the need for a rink for the Waltham Youth Hockey program, which Recreation Director Kim Hebert said serves more than 500 children. 

“Forget what’s going on with the state; there’s never enough ice,” said Ward 4 Councilor John McLaughlin, who proposed the idea of building a “small ice” training rink by using the additional space at the Lawrence school that would be freed up by rejecting the housing plan.

Ward 1 Councilor Anthony LaFauci told the council that additional space would currently be useful for the Waltham Youth Hockey program, which already rents rink space from Watertown’s John A. Ryan Arena and from Bentley University.

With Monday night’s City Council vote, the Recreation Department will investigate the feasibility of constructing a rink at the Lawrence Elementary School.

However, McCarthy said the city did not have much immediately available funding for a design study. The full City Council must also still ratify the decision to transfer the land from the School Committee to the Recreation Department.