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Acton select board directs peer review of proposed DPW building design
Summary
The Acton Select Board authorized staff to begin a third-party peer review of the town's proposed Department of Public Works building design and feasibility work, seeking updated cost and reuse options after voters rejected a prior debt-exclusion measure.
The Acton Select Board on June 2 directed town staff to engage a third-party peer reviewer to reassess plans and costs for a proposed Department of Public Works building, with a goal of returning updated options to the building committee and the board.
Town Manager John (Town Manager) told the board the town recently revisited a feasibility study and partial designs produced in 2020'1 and said market conditions and other factors have changed since that work. He said the administration has asked Arrow Street, a firm that previously worked for the town, to prepare a scope of services and perform a peer review of the prior design and feasibility assumptions. "We think that the very first step that should we should take is a peer review of the the proposed design and the feasibility study," John said.
The review will aim to update cost estimates and consider alternatives the board and residents raised after the debt-exclusion vote failed. Select Board member David (Select Board member) asked the review to focus on the garage portion of the plan and on lower-cost, pragmatic alternatives such as using the existing structure for limited functions or providing off-season storage. "For example, is it possible to use the existing structure just as the garage? Take the offices out, reinforce the walls as necessary..." David said.
Board members discussed scope and timing. John said Arrow Street is preparing a scope and the town expects an initial peer-review effort to begin within a month or two, with fuller documents taking longer. Tom (Building committee member) confirmed staff had provided Arrow Street with the feasibility study and 40% design and were awaiting a formal proposal of services. Several board members urged the peer review to include specific checks such as structural/stability and code implications and to return concrete cost comparisons for: (a) renovating the current building to a safe, code-compliant condition; (b) retaining the existing structure for garage/storage while building new offices elsewhere; and (c) the previously designed new building.
Select Board members emphasized they did not want to start a new full redesign from scratch without first getting a third-party read on whether the existing plan is still the most cost-effective approach. The board asked staff to proceed with the peer review and to engage the building committee as the review nears completion.
The discussion included repeated references to prior value-engineering and to voter concern about overall cost. No new borrowing or final design authorization was taken at the June 2 meeting; instead the board gave staff direction to proceed with the peer review and to circulate Arrow Street's proposed scope to the building committee and board.
Members who spoke on this item included John (Town Manager), Tom (Building committee member), and Select Board members David; Jim (Select Board member); Fran (Select Board member); Alicia (Select Board member); and others. The board requested that the peer review explicitly address structural safety, costs to bring the existing building to code, wash-bay and environmental controls, and lower-cost alternatives for storage or phased construction.
The next steps described by staff were: receive Arrow Street's scope of services, begin initial site work and analysis within weeks, circulate the draft peer-review findings to the building committee, then present final recommendations and options to the select board for direction on whether to revise the project or move forward to the next phase.
