Harvard has designs on Revere

REVERE – It’s got a famous beach minutes from Boston, multiple stops for rapid public transit, and three major “blank slates” that once attracted hundreds of thousands of people.Now the City of Revere has hopes that urban planning students from Harvard will help make those people return.”We are in an infancy stage,” Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo said last Thursday afternoon in City Hall, while describing the city’s planning efforts to the students. “We believe that what you can all bring to this situation is a kickstarter.”Rizzo, Revere Economic Development Director John Festa, and City Planner Frank Stringi and his staff welcomed 50 students in the Harvard Graduate School of Design to City Hall Thursday as part of a eight-week project between the school and the city. As part of the students’ second-semester class, they will be working with city residents and the city government to explore development and design potential for Wonderland Race Track, Suffolk Downs, Bell Circle, the Beachmont MBTA station, and Revere Beach. The students will solicit local input, study and prepare plans for each site. The students will present their ideas to the public and the city. The effort will also help the Plan Revere initiative, a master plan effort the city is undertaking to craft new zoning and policy recommendations for how to help the city grow and take advantage of its proximity to Boston.”The timing of the involvement is great,” Festa said. “You’re going to bring a fresh and new perspective and bold and new ideas to the city.”City officials Thursday welcomed students as they took a tour of the city, and explained some of the city’s setbacks and successes in attracting and retaining development.In particular, city officials discussed the histories of the city’s three most famous attractions – at least in former times.The Blizzard of 1978 destroyed the last vestiges of the amusements on Revere Beach. Wonderland Dog Track has remained shuttered since 2010 after the state ended greyhound racing. Rizzo described Suffolk Downs as “on life support” after it was rejected for the Boston-area casino license in favor of a proposal in Everett.Yet, Rizzo noted Suffolk Downs has 53 acres of property with a T stop on each side (although “as we all know,” Rizzo joked, “they’ve done pretty well this winter”). The dog track is 37 acres and across the street from Wonderland Station, which received $80-90 million in public funding for renovations and a pedestrian plaza connecting the station to the beach ? and the beach has a 6- to 7-acre “deck” where developers are building 400-plus residential units and there are plans for a 160-room hotel and retail developments.And Rizzo and his staff offered the students support, cooperation and assistance.”This is a great canvas to work on, there are some development sites that are underutilized right now,” Stringi said. “Go as far as you can go, I’m really curious to see what you come up with.”