New Voke site: a natural and man-made disaster

First published in the Wakefield Daily Item, February 2, 2023.

I took a walk in the Wakefield woods the other day. Along with a handful of other local folks, I hiked up and up along a rocky path, with a steep drop-off to our left, looking south. Wind whispered through the old growth oaks and pines all around us. Our leader pointed out the lichen-covered volcanic rock outcroppings, the rich black soil, vernal pools still and serene, as if sleeping, waiting for spring. Even in January, one couldn’t help breathing in and admiring the beauty. We walked and talked for over an hour, slowly wending our way west until eventually we emerged onto Farm Street.

If you’re thinking we must have been in Breakheart Reservation, you wouldn’t be far off. We were walking through the Northeast Metro Tech (NEMT) Forest, a high hilltop area continguous with Breakheart, and the planned site for the new Northeast Regional Vocational High School building (“Voke” for short).

Did you vote to approve the new Voke? So did I, enthusiastically casting my yes vote on the ballot question approving funding in January 2022. I voted in favor of a new Voke for the same reason I voted for the new Wakefield Memorial High School at Town Meeting last week. The building is far past its optimal life span and Voke students, from Wakefield and all the other neighboring communities that send kids there, need a new, modern facility.

But did you realize that in voting yes for the Voke, you were also voting for a building site that will mean destroying over 13 acres of old growth forest and rare wildlife habitat in Wakefield, cutting down over 2,000 trees, and blasting off the top of the hill? I didn’t. As more information has come out in recent months, I’ve become increasingly troubled – then angry. And I’m not alone. Over 4,500 people have signed a petition, not to stop the new building project – all are in favor of building a new school – but to move it to a different site on the Voke’s expansive 60-acre property.

The consternation and anger don’t just have to do with the destruction of a priceless natural treasure in Wakefield. There’s another crucial factor that will strike anyone who takes the time to actually go and visit the planned site: the current design and intended location make absolutely no practical or fiscal sense. (Apparently, NEMT School Building Committee members did not visit the hilltop site before agreeing to it.) The site “preparation” alone for the new school – weeks and even months of clearing and blasting – will cost tens of millions of dollars, an inordinate percentage of the total cost of the project. (Not to mention the added natural “cost” of potential contamination of groundwater from blasting chemicals.)

And then, of course, the school itself will be high up on a hill, with parking far below – six stories down – at the level of the current school building and parking lot, requiring students to climb ten flights of steps or to scale an over 700-foot-long ramped boardwalk – just to reach the first floor of a four-story building. Hopefully, no one will forget their laptop or lunch in their car. In addition, the access road up to the school on the Hemlock Road side will be a fairly steep grade with no sidewalk. Can you imagine hundreds of students climbing and descending ten flights of steps, or school buses and cars negotiating uphill access roads, on a daily basis, perhaps multiple times a day, in the icy New England winter? Doesn’t make sense.

Now, all you concerned citizens and yes-voters on the Voke ballot question last year (which, by the way, contained no mention of the site selection): Remember those informative presentations, the ones where the Voke superintendent, David DiBarri and the NEMT School Building Committee laid out the different potential sites that were considered, the pros and cons of each site and what would be entailed in building on it? And remember how they explained their rationale for ultimately choosing the most expensive, most ecologically destructive, least intuitively sensible and practical site of the three available options? Neither do I.

Explanation is absolutely required. In one crucial sense, Wakefield is different than the other 11 communities served by the Voke: we are the host community. This school will be built in Wakefield. Therefore, the siting – not just the funding – of the school demands a full and open debate, something that clearly did not happen. We need such a debate and explanation especially in light of the fact that a feasibility study conducted in 2016 rejected the forested hilltop site as both financially and logistically infeasible due to the huge blasting and site development costs, as well as the lack of accessibility.

Superintendent DiBarri has contended that “he has been clear about the selected location in numerous community meetings.” (See “Hilltop site for new Northeast MetroTech raises opposition in Wakefield,” Boston Globe, 11/25/22.) I’m skeptical. Which community meetings in Wakefield? In any case, clearly, the word did not get through to most citizens. Many folks that I talk to in town still believe the new school will be built on the site of the current football and athletic fields – one of the sites that had been considered and which, frankly, makes a lot more sense since it is already developed land and equal in size to the hilltop site.   

Sadly, but not surprisingly, people who are protesting this impending disaster are being called NIMBYs. DiBarri has said that protesters are racially or socio-economically motivated, that “They don’t want these kids coming up from Chelsea, Revere, and whatever the stereotypes are about our students, that it’s going to be in their backyard, and it’s going to be on their walking trails.” (See “Activists, school officials clash over new regional school location in Wakefield,” Boston.com, 11/28/22.) That is outrageous, insulting, and just not true. I love having the Voke in Wakefield and everyone I know does too.

I’m not a NIMBY. I’m not your stereotypical hippie tree-hugger who is against all development. In fact, I feel that much of the recent complaining about overdevelopment in Wakefield is overblown. On the whole, I believe that our town leadership is very thoughtful and smart about development and that Wakefield is moving in the right direction, towards an exciting future. I recently voted in favor of the new energy park, which was vigorously debated at Town Meeting. While building the park will require the clearing of a very small, one-acre section of forest, it was clear from all the information and expert opinion provided, that the environmental benefit will vastly outweigh the loss. It made sense.

I’m a pragmatist. Also, I love nature and the forest. And this hilltop site for the new Voke – this makes no sense. It is wrong. Anyone who has walked through Breakheart and has treasured having its cathedral-like natural beauty right here in Wakefield will feel the same.

Unfortunately, we are very late in the game – as DiBarri contends in the Boston Globe article, “The train has left the station on this project.” No, it hasn’t left yet, and we must stop it. Please, PLEASE, I urge you to visit NEMTforest.org. Sign the petition. Contact our Town Councilors and our Town Administrator Steve Maio and express what you think and how you feel about this issue.

Stopping the train, changing course, and finding a way to shift to a different site won’t be easy. It will surely make things messy and ugly and difficult for a time. But if we allow this rare and beautiful forest in Wakefield to be destroyed, it will be gone forever.

© Jeff Kehoe