By Seth Daniel
The City Council voted to approve a $90,000 expenditure for the purchase of a triangular parcel on Spencer Avenue Extension. The small lot, which borders Webster Avenue, had been used informally for parking by residents and parents picking up children from the Burke Elementary Complex, despite never being owned by the City.
The property was previously held by the French Club before being acquired by The Neighborhood Developers (TND) as part of their affordable housing initiative in the area.
City Manager Tom Ambrosino urged the Council to purchase the land to preserve it for public parking and open space rather than allow it to be developed for private use.
According to Councillor Matt Frank, the parcel has functioned as a public resource for years without formal municipal ownership. He emphasized its importance to neighborhood residents and to families dropping off students at the school complex.
“If we don’t own the land, someone else will control the land and we can’t tell a private owner to let people park there,” he said. “Voting for this is getting control of that land. That land was never owned by the City. It will now lawfully be owned by the City and we can do with it what the neighborhood would like.”
The Council approved the purchase unanimously, 10-0, with funding drawn from the Urban Renewal Fund.
When the proposal was first introduced several weeks prior, some councillors expressed reservations about the cost relative to the land’s size. By Monday evening, however, these objections had been resolved.