Even at 0.2 acres, Framingham 'pocket park' offers chance for fresh air
City officials offer slice of green space to nearby residents, workers
October 16, 2021 : The MetroWest Daily News, by Lillian Eden
FRAMINGHAM — South Framingham has a new park at 150 Irving St., transforming a packed-dirt parking lot near downtown into an outdoor space featuring a walkway, benches, a shaded structure and a bit of open space.
Its size may be slight — just 0.2 acres — but its compactness is perfect for its intended purpose: giving people living and working nearby a place to take a break, breathe fresh air and, perhaps, “find a little green to relieve their souls.”
That’s according to Erika Oliver Jerram, acting director of Planning and Community Development in Framingham.
In other words, it's a "pocket park."
What is a pocket park?
“Providing quality park and recreation space for inner-city residents is increasingly challenged by the limited amount of available park space in urban areas,” according to the National Recreation and Parks Association.
Pocket parks, as their name suggests, are not meant to be go-to spots for an entire city; rather, they’re convenient slices of space to visit, ideally located no further than it takes to walk to in 5 to 10 minutes. Common benefits, according to the NRPA, include making communities more sociable and improving fitness and health.
The NRPA further explains that “leftover spaces and other urban eyesores present opportunities for conversion to pocket parks, offering important and desirable amenities to communities.”
The Irving Street parcel was one such area.
How does an unused lot become a park?
“Before the town became a city, this parcel was identified by our staff and by conservation staff as a city-owned parcel that could be more,” Jerram said. "In the end (selectmen, as Framingham was still a town at the time) decided it really would be best served to create a park there that could serve the very dense Southside area that didn’t have a lot of open space or green space."
In the fall of 2018, a workshop was held for the public to discuss designs for a park at 150 Irving St. The following spring, $50,000 was crowdfunded for the project. Jerram said people from throughout the country offered donations. Using crowdfunding was a new venture for Framingham, but it was "something that people could get really excited about who weren’t even necessarily going to benefit, but they wanted to do their part," Jerram said.
The amount was matched by MassDevelopment through the Commonwealth Places Program. With funding in hand, groundbreaking occurred in the fall of 2019. Construction was meant to wrap up by the end of 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic.
Although there isn’t a master plan to install more pocket parks in Framingham, Jerram said officials are working with Parks and Recreation to create more open space “where we can.” Downtown Framingham Inc. and the Parks & Recreation Department also helped bring the project to fruition.
“It’s a public investment that gives people pride in their community, not just a place to relax,” Jerram said. “Hopefully it’s something people enjoy.”
