MGNA: Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance

Five Medford residents were appointed Monday to the new Green Line Extension Working Group that will assist and advise MassDOT during the next phase of the project.

Doug Carr, Jessica Martin, Julia Prange and Laurel Ruma of Medford were among 18 citizens appointed to the group. City Councilor Fred Dello Russo Jr. also was appointed as a representative of the city.

MassDOT chose the Working Group representatives from more than 100 people who applied in April in response to an invitation from MassDOT and the MBTA.

One of the criteria was that citizens live in close proximity to the proposed stations. Ruma is a Burget Avenue abutter to the College Avenue station, Prange lives in Ball Square, and Martin resides on Main Street in South Medford. Carr is a Boston Avenue resident who lives near the Route 16 station proposed in Phase II of the project. He also was a member of the Beyond Lechmere Northwest Corridor Advisory Group from 2004-05.

The Working Group will advise MassDOT and the MBTA on the design of six new stations proposed for the neighborhoods of Brickbottom, Gilman Square, Lowell Street, Ball Square, College Avenue, and Union Square, as well as the relocation of Lechmere Station.

The Working Group will also provide input on design issues related to the Green Line Extension vehicle support facility and the Community Path project.

Working Group members will review design plans, gather and share local input, and help plan public station design events, which will begin this fall.

The group is expected to begin meeting in July.

The complete list of Working Group members can be found on the Commonwealth’s Transportation Blog.

Note: Todd Kaplan, listed by MassDOT as a Medford representative, actually is a Somerville resident.

Here are some notes from the 11th meeting of the Green Line Extension Project Advisory Group, conducted by the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) on Tuesday, Feb 3, at the St. Clement Parish Hall in Medford:

PROJECT OVERVIEW
Project Manager Steve Woelfel said the EOT was nearing completion of the Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIR/EIA), working with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office and the Federal Transit Administration. The DEIR is likely to be filed to MEPA in late March or early April.

PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE
Woelfel briefly summarized EOT’s recommendation for two of the last major remaining issues to be addressed in the DEIR — the terminus location on the main line extension, and the configuration of the Union Square branch:

+ TERMINUS STATION: Woelfel said EOT will recommend in the DEIR that the main line extension go to Mystic Valley Parkway (Route 16), contingent on the project’s ability to secure federal funding, and that there be no parking garage at the terminus station. Woelfel said EOT favored Route 16 –- over a terminus at College Avenue and Boston Avenue — because of its mobility and air quality benefits, public support for the location, and the potential to stimulate some development opportunities in the area. He said EOT’s analysis of a parking garage at the terminus concluded that it would not provide enough benefit to warrant the cost.

Regarding the funding contingency, Woelfel explained that state funds have been committed for the extension to Medford Hillside and the Union Square branch, which the state is legally obligated to build, but that federal funds will be needed to extend he line to Route 16, which is an enhancement to the legal obligation.

He said EOT feels the Route 16 alternative provides a “very strong project” under the New Starts federal funding program guidelines, but that if further analysis of the terminus shows it is “not as competitive as we believe today,” EOT will re-evaluate its decision on the terminus.

EOT also distributed a press release regarding the Route 16 recommendation.

+ UNION SQUARE BRANCH: Woelfel said that EOT will recommend in the DEIR that the Union Square branch consist of two tracks running parallel to the Fitchburg commuter rail right-of-way, rather than the single-track loop alternative proposed to run through the square. Woelfel said EOT deemed operational challenges of the loop configuration too significant, and that the Fitchburg alignment and station location “fits better with the vision Somerville has for that area and can support it better.”

Details on these recommendations and other issues regarding the project will be included in the DEIR, which will be open for public review.

MBTA REAL ESTATE PRESENTATION
Bob LaVita of TR Advisors, the MBTA’s real estate consultant, provided an overview on the process and policies the MBTA follows when a project requires property acquisitions. He said the process usually commences when the project is at the 30% design stage and involves independent appraisal, offer to purchase, negotiation, and settlement. (No required property acquisitions have been yet identified for the Green Line extension, which will be at the 10% design stage when the DEIR is filed.) LaVita said the purchase process usually takes 6 to 12 months. Only the MBTA Board of Directors can authorize permanent acquisition of any land by the T. The MBTA does have eminent domain powers, under Mass. General Law 79, if a property owner does not want to sell. The MBTA also is obligated to provide relocation assistance if a residence or business property is taken.

NEXT STEPS
EOT is planning to hold two evening public meetings – one in Medford and one in Somerville – in mid-March to present the latest information on the project prior to its filing of the DEIR. Once the DEIR is filed, the MEPA office will conduct a public hearing, and there will be a period of at least 30 days for written public comments to be submitted on the DEIR.

- Ken Krause
Project Advisory Group member

The wait continues for the state’s recommendation for the location of the terminus station on the Green Line extension to Medford.

Today, the Executive Office of Transportation announced the cancellation of the meeting of the Green Line Extension Project Advisory Group scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 15.  The agenda for that meeting was expected to include a presentation and a recommendation on the terminus station location — either at Boston Avenue and College Avenue in Medford, or at Mystic Valley Parkway (Route 16) and Boston Avenue in Somerville near the Medford line.

The notice from EOT gave no reason for the meeting cancellation, nor did it indicate when the meeting would be rescheduled.

The cancellation could push the work on the current phase of the Green Line extension project — the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) — even further behind schedule. The DEIR was required to be filed to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) by Dec. 1, 2008.

In a letter to DEP Commissioner Laurie Burt dated Dec. 1, 2008, David J. Mohler, Deputy Secretary of Planning for the commonwealth, explained that the project has taken more time than anticipated because of “unforseen circumstances, spirited differences of opinion, and logistical hurdles.”

“The development of the DEIR has been complex and intense, requiring the collection of extensive data, the conducting of numerous public meetings throughout the project corridor, and in-depth coordination with the corridor municipalities,” Mohler wrote. “In particular, the extensive coordination with key stakeholders in which we are currently engaged has required more time than we had anticipated.”

In that letter, Mohler stated that the EOT expected to file the DEIR at the end of January 2009, and that it expected to enter the Preliminary Engineering phase of the project in the winter of 2009, as its internal project schedule requires.

The commonwealth has a legal commitment to have the Green Line extension in operation by Dec. 31, 2014.