Montague residents join workshop on future of former Farren Care Center lot

MONTAGUE — Residents used a hands-on game to visualize what they’d like to see at the site of the former Farren Care Center.

A discussion forum last week allowed participants to recommend zoning and redevelopment options for new housing and commercial space on the Montague City Road property. Innes Associates, the town’s consultant funded through a $62,000 award from the Community Planning Grant Program, visited the Great Falls Discovery Center alongside town officials and residents to explain what zoning is, the types of zoning and how rezoning can bring new ideas to fruition.

“Whenever you have a vision, you have to have an implementation plan, and zoning is often the first step of that implementation plan,” Innes Associates President Emily Innes said at the start of her presentation. “So in some ways, we almost have to take a step or two back and say, ‘OK, this is what the vision was. There are a couple of options out there. But how do you create zoning rules and regulations around that?’”

For Innes Associates, there are two project areas that will be focused on, including rezoning the former Farren parcel and a sister project on Rod Shop Road to encourage the reuse of historical buildings, and encourage a transition from existing residential housing into the new village center.

The 8-acre Farren parcel is currently located in the Central Business District, while Rod Shop Road is split between Central Business and Historic Industrial. Adjacent parcels are located in the Neighborhood Business District, while the westernmost lots to the Farren property, which abut the Connecticut River, are located in the Industrial District.

Nearby infrastructure such as the Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA) bus routes and the Canalside Rail Trail provide an advantage, Montague Planning Director Maureen Pollock said, adding that the town looks to do “thoughtful redevelopment” that takes this into account.

Since the former Farren Care Center was demolished and ownership was transferred to the town in the fall of 2023, the town has worked with the Massachusetts Housing Partnership and engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB) to collect ideas on how the lot can serve as a village center, with resident feedback indicating a desire for a mixed-use, campus-style development.

To help take the large concepts around zoning and break them down into digestible pieces, Thursday’s presentation included slides to explain “Zoning 101,” and offered a workshop for residents to chart out their ideas.

At tables spread around the Discovery Center, people gathered around a map of the former Farren and Road Shop Road to place colored squares that indicated which types of development — including residential and commercial, community center, open space, parking and light industry — they’d like to see.

Once the tables cleared, Innes Associates staff snapped pictures of the ideas guests came up with, and each table’s map looked different.

Posterboards around the Discovery Center offered the same style of feedback, with stickers placed to indicate what portion of residential and commercial development there should be, and what types would be most appropriate. Green stickers indicating interest plastered the single-unit dwelling and senior housing rows on one of the posterboards. Another board with the same information had written feedback — for example, “Everyone wants a pool” or “More family housing.”

After completing the mapping activity, Turners Falls resident Alice Glass said she hopes to see recreation space be a part of this redevelopment project to allow neighbors to connect and get to know each other.

“The biggest thing is recreation for the community,” she said. “That is what pulls them together. … As everything in our world is doing everything possible to polarize, doing things in the same place at the same time has an incredible mental health benefit.”

Innes closed the meeting with a brief question-and-answer session. Turners Falls resident Eli Smith asked how this redevelopment could incorporate low-income and affordable housing to combat the housing crisis, and Innes explained affordable housing zoning bylaws, incentive zoning and affordability by design are all options that can be explored as this project continues.

Going forward, the plan from Innes is to collect the community feedback to create a zoning draft that will be part of a June 10 virtual presentation. The goal is to have bylaws ready for a vote at a fall Special Town Meeting.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.