Case Study - Land Strategy and Public/Private Partnerships

The Rail Transit District

How Ashland used vision and creative thinking to convert 200 acres of its most tainted property into a balanced district, using one vote by the legislative body to trigger four separate transactions

Ashland, Massachusetts · 2016 to 2021

About the project

In 2016, the land behind Ashland's commuter rail station was on track for close to 1,000 apartments and townhomes, on and around the Nyanza Superfund site. Five years later, the Town owned or controlled about 100 acres of it as open space and trails. A regional YMCA had a 12.5-acre campus across the street from the middle school, and 180 age‑restricted rental apartments - many of them affordable - were permitted in place of market-rate townhomes.

One Town Meeting vote in November 2018 set all of it in motion. The case study covers how that happened, what it cost, who had to agree, and what other communities can take from it. Although the case study describes my thinking, my approach to the area and the problem, and my process for solving it, many hands played a role in making this happen. The private parties, the leadership of the YMCA, Ashland's boards and committees, town staff, and most importantly, engaged residents did a lot of this work as well. Indeed, the last lesson above is probably the most important. For a municipal leader, cultivating alignment on an initiative across stakeholders with different interests is the quietest, most labor-intensive, yet most important work.