Councilors propose alternate sites, debate process for former Taunton Nursing Home

Councilor Borges submitted a communication about the future of the former Taunton Nursing Home site (350 Norton Ave), urging officials to consider relocating proposed veteran and senior housing to the city-owned Maxim School site (141 Oak Street). Borges wrote that the nursing home property sits on 6.5 acres adjacent to schools and recreational uses and argued an alternative site might provide better access to services for seniors and veterans.

Councilors debated whether informal stakeholder meetings had already occurred and whether any plan had effectively been predetermined. Councilor DeWitt and others said prior outreach meetings were intended to inform stakeholders about the disposition process but denied that formal decisions had been made by the administration. Councilor Coit and others said they had received communications from external organizations (including an email from Volunteers of America) and asked that such correspondence be placed on a future agenda for transparency.

The council voted to refer Councilor Borges’s letter to the Public Property Committee and the mayor’s office for further review, and to place any relevant emails on a future agenda (new business). Council members said they would hear a fuller discussion at a Public Property Committee meeting planned for January 7 and that the city will solicit options and conduct due diligence before deciding whether to declare the property surplus or pursue a particular reuse.

What happens next: the matter will be discussed at the Public Property Committee meeting; councilors asked staff to compile background materials and for any interested parties to present alternatives at that forum.