Pool, community center, new housing — residents on Monday can pitch ideas for what they want at the former Newbury College west campus on Fisher Hill.
Brookline purchased the western half of Newbury College, now called Fisher Hill West, in 2021 and has been trying to decide what to do with it.
The town had tried to buy the entire campus after the school closed in 2019 but was outbid by Welltower, a real estate company that builds senior housing — in 2024 it constructed The Newbury, a senior community across from the Fisher Hill West property. In 2021, Welltower sold part of the parcel — the 3-acre Fisher Hill West — to Brookline for $14.9 million.
“From the very beginning the issue was, ‘What are we going to do with this?’” said Bernard Greene, a Select Board member and chair of the Fisher Hill West Use Advisory Committee.
The Newbury academic building is housing the Pierce School’s middle schoolers until December 2027, when construction of its new building is expected to finish. The town now looks to residents’ proposals for the Fisher Hill West property’s next — and permanent — use.
After Monday’s meeting, the Fisher Hill West Use Advisory Committee will choose three to five ideas to flesh out with a community polling and feasibility study to present to the Select Board by the end of the year.
Preliminary studies conducted in 2019 suggest there could be multiple potential uses for the property’s academic and West Hall buildings. They included an indoor/outdoor pool, a community center and senior housing.
“It’s not one or the other,” Town Meeting member Alec Lebovitz said. “We want to look for the total package of uses that will complement each other well and really make something special for the Town on Fisher Hill.”
A timeline is difficult to lay out, Greene said, because the committee doesn’t know what community input will be like.
“We really just want to hear every idea,” said Christina Metcalf, town communications officer. “We want people to participate and give us their ideas because what one group wants may not be what the whole community needs.”
Xiaohui Wang, who moved to Brookline two years ago, said the town already has some of these amenities, mentioning the soccer field at the Fisher Hill Reservoir — just across a parking lot from the academic building — and an indoor pool on Tappan Street.
She said, though, it’d be nice to have something new, like a center where she could play badminton.
Miriam Enos, who lives blocks from the Fisher Hill West property and walks her dog by the site every day, said she agreed that there’s “an unmet need” for an outdoor pool in Brookline, mentioning not only cooling off on hot summer days but the opportunity for kids’ jobs — like lifeguarding as a teenager.
Lebovitz is also a founder of community organization Friends of the Brookline Community Outdoor Pool, which advocates for part of the Fisher Hill West property to be allocated for a community pool.
Lebovitz said a new pool would provide a neighborhood space to gather, offer a place to cool down as summers get hotter with climate change, and alleviate difficulties parents have reported in getting children into swim lessons.
“One reason why a lot of people support the idea of an outdoor community pool is that it’s a rec option that is truly universally accessible,” he said.
Friends of the Brookline Community Outdoor Pool has collected 500 community signatures in support of an outdoor pool, and looks to Fisher Hill West and Larz Anderson Park as potential locations.
Toby Simon, a resident at The Newbury senior community, said a recreation or senior center would be convenient, since it’s just across the street, but expressed interest in a pool as well.
“I want a community-fostering space, something that fits the current culture,” said Deborah Stein, who lives near Fisher Hill. “By ‘current culture’ I mean not bringing a lot of extra traffic and noise,” she said, mentioning the sounds she’s heard from the The Newbury’s dumpsters.
Stein heard about some proposed uses during a past Fisher Hill committee meeting, and said she trusts the town will make its decision based on the impact on residents.
“Whatever Brookline does to promote families, to promote equity, would be great,” she said.
Residents can join the Brookline Planning and Community Development Department and the Fisher Hill West Use Advisory Committee Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Brookline High School’s 22 Tappan St. building.