THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, February 21, 2025 Page 3 Councillors: Turn surplus city-owned property into affordable housing units Proposal to convert former Malden Courthouse, Oak Grove Community Center to residential use amps up Council meeting By Steve Freker T he temperature rose considerably in the Herbert L. Jackson Council Chambers at Malden City Hall at the last City Council meeting, and it had nothing to do with the thermostat. When all the debate on what turned out to be a very thorny topic simmered down, several City Councillors agreed to disagree regarding the fate of a pair of iconic Malden edifices. Also, every elected official in the room concurred on the one overlying dilemma: How does this city go about addressing what many believe is fast becoming the #1 issue in the city, lack of affordable housing. “We’ve had two major changes shoved us at us on short notice in the past year and we had to change all our zoning laws due to mandates on ADUs [accessory dwelling units] and MBTA-related zoning,” said Malden Councillor-at-Large Craig Spadafora at the February 11 Council meeting. “It is not equitable for a community like Malden to have to go through this when we are trying to address affordable housing,” Councillor Spadafora added. “Through all of this, I have heard the word ‘crisis’ 15 times.” At that meeting, Spadafora and cosponsor Paul Condon (Ward 2) put forth a resolution calling for the City of Malden to start designating surplus property for conversion to affordable housing. Spadafora and Condon stated in the resolution that the city could start with the former Malden Courthouse building on Summer Street and the Oak Grove Community Center located at the corner of Winter and Washington Streets. Both buildings have been the center of hopeful renovation projects, with the former Malden District Court building for the past three years sitting vacant, while still being considered as the site of a future Arts and Culture center in the city. The Oak Grove Comfor luxuries [like an arts center]. “We talk about affordable The Oak Grove Community Building was built in 1927 and is located at 6 Wyoming St. in Malden. (Courtesy Photo) The former Malden District Courthouse, built in 1922, has been vacant for six years and was sold to the City of Malden by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2020 for $480,000. (Courtesy Photo) munity Center, a much smaller structure, has also been at the center of renovation speculation. The issue at this time, Councillor Spadafora said, is that the cost to renovate the Courthouse building is rapidly escalating. “Both of these buildings have been vacant for years and both are near the MBTA,” Spadafora said. “We always talk about affordable housing, here’s a way we can do it.” Councillor Condon agreed. “It’s simply a choice. We can have an arts center or affordable housing for 10-12 families. That’s an easy answer.” “I have heard $12 million [to renovate] the Courthouse, just to make it safe and usable as an arts center. If there’s $12 million in our city for that? Show us!” Spadafora said. “It’s not that I don’t like the arts, but I’m not laying off teachers. I’m not laying off firefighters. We aren’t talking about putting a Chevalier auditorium like Medford has in there,” the longtime Councillor added. “I’m not going to ask our residents to dig deeper for three years and then ask housing out both sides of our mouths but it’s going to come down to money and our budget. I don’t know if it’s this year or next. But this is an option,” Spadafora said. When Spadafora started to get pushback from other Councillors on his proposal, he said, “That’s fine. Let’s table this for five months and then see what happens.” A motion to that effect failed by a 7-3 vote. What did eventuHOUSING | SEE PAGE 17 RON’S OIL Call For PRICE MELROSE, MA 02176 NEW CUSTOMER’S WELCOME ACCEPTING VISA, MASTERCARD & DISCOVER (781) 397-1930 OR (781) 662-8884 100 GALLON MINIMUM
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