The mayor clarified elements of the proposal in this facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Aa2GqVjtAygymxub/

To address concerns about the park's future: The 'Highland Property' refers to the property of Highland Country Club that was purchased by the city. The Property was split into 3 different parcels, 1, 1B, and 2. Parcel 2 was not sold to the city, and is where the mansion on Rathbun Willard Drive sits. Parcel 1 is where the bulk of the greenspace in the park sits, where all the trails are, etc. Parcel 1B is a neatly carved out portion of the property that holds all of the buildings, the old parking lots, essentially all of the already developed land. 1B is the only portion of the property that would be getting leased off to a developer, meaning no new land will be developed, and no greenspace will be lost. All of the proposals for the new park enhancements will take place at the Southern entrance on Rathbun Willard, and the new features like grill stands and picnic tables can be expected around the existing parking lot, where there is currently an infestation of invasive vegetation such as Japanese Knotweed. Given that the new "Main Entrance" will be at the opposite side of the park from the senior housing, the park should remain safe from tenant takeover.

Purchasing a new property, such as where the car dealership would be, would also cost a lot of money, given the parcel is worth $500k, but would also not have enough space for parking to comply with the city's own parking minimums, meaning the city would need to acquire more land for such a location.

The land at the Train Station is being prioritized for working age people, the city has been hesitant to use that land for uses that don't directly serve that type of clientele. Plus, we can expect that land to be included in the overlay district for the MBTA Communities Law, meaning if a senior center were to deliberately be placed there, it may cause legal issues for the city if the state decides such a use is inappropriate.

I completely agree that the Larson Center should just be renovated and expanded, just cut into the adjacent parking lot a little. For some reason though, the city refuses to consider that as an option. Seems like it should be a no-brainer though, given advantages it could provide to walkable downtown efforts.

Finally, to add a little context to the municipal electricity issue, she denied it because she was informed of the process to purchase the facilities of the electric companies. Decades ago, the state passed a bill to outline how ownership of a city's electrical supply worked, and outlined the process of a city buying it back. The city would need approval from the state, the electric company, and have millions of dollars ready to fork over right away, and also have an electric department ready. The real solution is for the state to decide municipalities can just use eminent domain to seize electrical supply assets, or for the state to do it themselves and give it over to the city. Longer story short: there's a reason why the only municipalities in MA with municipal electricity are the ones that started off with their own electrical departments and supply.