Committee recommends housing proposal for White Cliffs

White Cliffs | from page 1 dents who have invested in the property.

“The ability for any resident to go on that property and use the community room is very vague,” she said.

How the town got here

Northborough solicited a request for proposals (RFP) for the redevelopment and reuse of the mansion. In total, three developers responded; one proposer was deemed not to have met the minimum criteria.

On Jan. 12, the two remaining developers — Metro West Collaborative Development and Historic Artifact Preservation Organization (HAPO) — presented their proposals

What’s next for the Westborough Golf Club building?

Civic Kitchen | from page 14 ditionally, a detailed electrical evaluation was recommended.

The total estimates for repairs came in around $800,000, not including contingency or any changes to the building to better support current functions.

Next steps

During their Jan. 24 meeting, the Select Board chose not to issue an RFP; it recommended establishing a building committee to further consider the report, current use of the building and community needs and make a recommendation to the board for next steps for this building.

Johnson said the site has between 7,000 and 8,000 square feet, and “much of it unused.” to the White Cliffs Committee.

“My hope is to do this quickly,” said Johnson.

The composition and charge of this committee will be discussed at the board’s Feb. 14 meeting.

After that meeting, committee members filled out grading matrices. According to Brett Pelletier, HAPO received 67 points, and Metro West received 112.

While HAPO sought to develop collaborative workspace and an event venue, Metro West proposed the construction of 52 units of rental housing.

During the meeting, members praised the creativity of HAPO’s presentation, but some voiced concern about their experience. Member Tom Reardon said HAPO’s ideas didn’t go together. He added that their methodology called for using volunteer labor and donations to restore the property.

“That’s a nonstarter for me,” Reardon said. “They don’t even know what the Secretary of Interior’s guidelines are for the procedures and the methods you use to restore a historic property.”

Chair Todd Helwig said he didn’t think it met any of the criteria of what the committee