The partition of the Middlesex County Hospital created a compromise between development and preservation. The
intensity of use of the campus portion of the site will increase dramatically as private hospital uses give way to two large
residential developments. Legal action by the City of Waltham preserved six acres of Lot 5 along Woburn Street for
recreation—the land had been slated for development in the original partition plan. Recently, however, the
Commonwealth sold the 7-acre Lot 6 on Walnut Street in Lexington, zoned for house lots. Further development of the
natural portions of the original campus will fragment the fragile wildlife corridors that keep this heavily developed area
healthy.
With the huge amount of state, federal and private land being surplused and sold for development along Trapelo Road,
it is unreasonable to allow even limited development on Lot 1. The short stretch of Trapelo Road bearing traffic from
Waltham, Belmont and Lexington will absorb the impacts of development at the former Murphy Army Hospital/Army
Corps of Engineers land, the Metropolitan State Hospital, and Indian Ridge. Additionally, planning and permitting is
underway for expansion of the Brookhaven retirement complex in Lexington; three new housing projects on other lots
carved out of the County Hospital in Waltham and Lexington are pending; redevelopment of the Gaebler School parcel
is looming (Waltham); a dense housing development over MBTA tracks in Waverly Square (Belmont) is in the works;
and a huge, mixed‑use development is slated for the MacLean Hospital campus (Belmont). Over 1,600 new housing
units are planned already in this two-and-a-half-mile long stretch of Trapelo Road. Additionally, while the future of the
sprawling, 200-acre Fernald School is unknown, the Commonwealth’s intent to surplus this nearby facility brings the
threat of a massive redevelopment to this already critically overburdened area