(The Winning Farm house and barn, in Woburn, ca. 1900, courtesy of the Winchester Archival Center).

Winning Farm, formerly a 110-acre parcel of farmland spanning Winchester, Woburn, and Lexington, is the site of a future senior housing complex set within conservation land.  The complex is being built by the Salter Healthcare Group.

The town purchased the property from Winning Home, Inc., which had been using the property since 1902 for youth services such as camping and horseback riding. In 1995, the Board of Winning Home, Inc., decided that the purposes of the trust were no longer being served and sold the property to each of the three towns.

In June 1996, Town Meeting approved the purchase of the Winchester portion of the property, about 44 acres, and created the Winning Farm Use Committee, which reported back a year later, recommending that 12.5 acres be sold for either single family or assisted living development with affordability components. The Town developed a Request for Proposals in November 1998, and in January 2000 the Selectmen designated the Salter Healthcare Group as the developer of the parcel.  A special Town Meeting in February 2000 authorized the sale of the land and created an Independent Elderly Housing Overlay District.

The Salters planned a complex including an independent-living building and an assisted-living building, with 20 percent affordable housing units, plus walking trails, conservation shelter, parking lot, and a new access road, Gershon Way, to cross a vacant lot on Thornberry Road, then owned by the Town.

The project went through a series of approvals and permits, including Conservation Commission delineation of wetlands and order of conditions, Planning Board approval of the definitive subdivision plans, and Zoning Board of Appeals approval of a special permit. This last decision was  filed on June 15, 2001.  All the decisions were appealed.

In February 2003, based on the possible impartiality of one member of the ZBA, the Superior Court ordered that the ZBA decision be vacated and that the matter go back to the board for a new hearing.  A vote at the fall 2003 Town Meeting defeated an article sponsored by project opponents meant to amend the purchase and sales agreement.  This vote was viewed as a reaffirmation of the project.  The ZBA held a new hearing and again approved a special permit in October 2003.  Again the decision was appealed.

The developer and a group of neighbors then reached a settlement agreement, whose terms included the reduction of the development from 145 units to 88 and from two buildings to one, a non-interference agreement signed by the plaintiffs to the litigation then pending and a number of other neighbors, and a joint motion to stay the litigation. The motion to stay was accepted in the Middlesex Superior Court in June 2005.

The ZBA held a new hearing on the scaled-back project and voted a new permit in January 2006.  The Conservation Commission then voted a new order of conditions.  In March, the Board of Selectmen transferred the deed for the area to be developed to Winning Farm LLC.  One further appeal was filed but was dismissed in March 2007.

In the fall of 2008, construction began with the building of the first 375 feet of the access road and some utility work.