Mayor Joseph Sullivan hopes the meeting will be the end of a long approval process.
BRAINTREE – The planning board has scheduled a special Jan. 25 meeting that could decide the fate of the proposed Petersen Pool/Rink.
The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in town hall’s Cahill Auditorium. The Petersen project is the only item on the agenda.
“We have received all the engineering that has been lacking,” said Joseph Reynolds, chief of staff to Mayor Joseph Sullivan and a former planning board member.
The proposal includes a pool and two regulation-size ice rinks. The facility is being co-developed by the town and the BSC Partners. The company would build and operate the facility; the town would put up money for the pool and would receive preference in scheduling.
In his monthly “Braintree Blue” newsletter, Sullivan expressed confidence that project will receive planning board approval. He said the changes to the plan involve drainage, traffic plans and mitigation measures.
“As of today, it is expected that the planning board will be in possession of all requested updates and engineering details needed to hold a final vote of approval,” the mayor wrote this week.
He also noted that during the review, the size of the complex was reduced by nearly half with the elimination of a proposed field house.
The complex would be built on the Braintree High School campus, close to the intersection of Granite and Town streets. and would share parking with the school.
Sullivan said the facility would provide a home for youth and high school sports team and a recreational facility for residents, and would, because of the town’s location, draw “numerous high-quality sporting events.”
Sullivan said he expects the facility to be completed in the fall of 2019.
“This project has taken much work by many good people with the full intention to offer our community a pool/rink complex of the highest quality,” the mayor said.
Sullivan thanked the planning board members and the planning and engineering departments for all of their efforts on the project.
The pool would be named for tugboat captain August Petersen, who in 1963 left the town money for the construction of a pool in his East Braintree neighborhood. Construction of the pool and its location have been debated ever since.
Some of that money, along with the interest it earned over the years, was used to build the Petersen Splash Pad in Watson Park. The splash pad opened four years ago.