Residents Mixed on New Navy Yard Splashpad

Four months ago, Charlestown Navy Yard residents rejected the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s plans for a new children’s splash pad near Shipyard Park, with many arguing that it was an unnecessary replacement for the fountain that children have been safely playing in for more than 30 years.

On June 27, the BRA was back before the community with an updated plan that incorporated the water feature into the existing playground at Shipyard Park. And this time, many people spoke in support of the idea.

The new splashpad will consist of a 30-by-30-foot diamond shaped area located next to the existing sand pit at Shipyard Park, off Eighth Street, according to Cheri Ruane, a landscape architect with Weston & Sampson. Part of the existing retaining wall will be removed and the play area will essentially be pushed out to include the new feature. The wall will then be rebuilt around the feature, along with landscaped vegetation, and will provide a place for parents to sit as well as a barrier to help keep kids corralled and away from the street.

The splashplad will feature 10 waterplay devices, all flush to the nonslip ground, which kids can operate by pressing on activators. The devices are designed for a range of ages, from “water jellies,” which stream just a few inches off the ground, to a mid-sized water tunnel to a “ground geyser,” which can reach about 4 feet, Ruane said.

Typically, splashpads are open from about Memorial Day to about Labor Day, and the water is only turned on during the day—typically from about 10 a.m. to dusk (7 or 8 p.m.), Ruane said. The water does not run unless activated, and all water will be infiltrated back into the ground for irrigation.

“The goal is to try and provide something that is suitable and beneficial for the people of Charlestown—not only Charlestown but throughout the city as well,” said Paul Osborn, building manager for the BRA, which owns and maintains Shipyard Park.

After hearing concerns at the first meeting on the new splashpad, held in February, about potential noise and other nuisances to the nearby MGH Institute of Health Professions and the Korean War Monument, the BRA changed the location on the plans, Osborn said.

The new splashpad is being designed as a sort of replacement for the Shipyard Park fountain, a public art installation that local families and visitors to the Navy Yard have been using as a wading pool for many years. The BRA installed a fence around the fountain last September as a temporary way of keeping people out after determining that the wading pool use was unsafe.

Though there was talk at the meeting about the water possibly being turned on in the near future, the BRA has no plans to remove the fence, officials said.

Friends of the Navy Yard president Lois Siegelman, who in February spoke adamantly against the new splashpad and against the city’s closure of the fountain, said this time she felt the design was “a much superior plan.”

While many Navy Yard residents still see nothing wrong with using the fountain the way it has been used for more than three decades, there was more support this time around for the alternative.

“What we’ve been told is you can have a splash pad with no fountain or you can have no splash pad with no fountain,” Charlestown Neighborhood Council member Mark Rosenshein explained.

Many parents said they wanted to see a waterplay feature in the Navy Yard, not only for children who live there but also for children who come from all over Charlestown and elsewhere in the city to cool off.

The six CNC members present at the meeting voted in support of the project.

More than 500 people signed an online petition at change.org, set up by the Charlestown Mothers Association, in support of the new splashpad. And in a separate online survey set up by the group, 97 percent of more than 100 people polled said they wanted to see a splashpad in the Navy Yard in lieu of the fountain being reopened for play, according to Amanda Reinfeld, an at-large CNC member.

But some people also spoke against the project.

A resident of the Flagship Wharf Condominiums, which is located about 60 feet from the proposed splashpad, presented a petition signed by another 500 people opposing the project. He argued that the fountain had been unnecessarily closed and that money should be used for other unfinished projects in the Navy Yard.

Others expressed concerns over maintenance of the new splashpad, saying the existing playground and park area are already in need of better care.

The BRA expects to receive bids to construct the project this week, and the goal is to have the splashpad installed this fall and ready to open next summer, Osborn said.