Brickbottom Says “Yes” to the Green Line and “No” to the Yard 8 Heavy Maintenance and Storage Facility
Brickbottom, a vibrant community of 200 residents located in Somerville’s Ward 2, has long been a galvanizing force in an area that is often overlooked and neglected.
Brickbottom strongly supports the Green Line Extension. However, we oppose MassDOT (formerly the Executive Office of Transportation or EOT)’s proposed siting of a heavy maintenance and storage facility in the location referred to “Yard 8″ for three reasons:
Economic:
Brickbottom and the neighboring Inner Belt district have been identified as prime areas for redevelopment by the Mayor and economic experts and is under consideration for designation as a Growth District by Governor Deval Patrick. The proposed siting would destroy this potential.
The proposed facility would take 11.5 acres of land from the City of Somerville, much of it privately held, already permitted and developable, and remove it from the city’s commercial tax base.
The proposal for “Yard 8″ also erects permanent barriers to both neighborhood cohesion and to future economic development that will last for generations to come.
Environmental:
The Green Line extension is intended to mitigate existing and future transportation burdens, but the proposed location instead creates a second heavy maintenance facility in Somerville that would permanently and disproportionately burden the city.
The proposed “Yard 8″ location will be immediately adjacent to the only existing residential community in the area, introducing significant noise and light pollution, as well as potential toxic runoff into the groundwater and the Charles River Watershed.
Construction at “Yard 8″ on contaminated rail land, would require complex and expensive construction mitigation because it is so close to existing homes.
Expediency:
The Certificate of the Secretary of Environmental Affairs mandating the Green Line Extension Project declares that the “…siting of the storage and maintenance facility should be carefully considered and community impacts carefully assessed and mitigated.”
Despite these directives, expediency appears to be MassDOT’s guiding principle in promoting the “Yard 8″ site.
The project’s Citizen’s Advisory Group was not involved in evaluating potential sites, and mandated land use planning was not performed. Too many decisions seem to have been made behind closed doors.
In fact, all alternative proposals have been dismissed by MassDOT, prioritizing operational efficiency over all other community impacts and concerns.
Alternatives?
We think that there is at least one viable alternative to “Yard 8,” and we support the plan developed by the City of Somerville known as Mirror Scheme H.
Other operationally viable alternatives have been proposed. Mirror Scheme H has been assessed by MassDOT and declared “workable from an operational perspective”.
MassDOT is reluctant to take any Cambridge land, preferring to use Somerville land. Mirror Scheme H keeps the majority of the facility in Somerville, but places it adjacent to an existing rail maintenance facility and further away from current residential uses.
If MassDOT cannot find an alternative to the “Yard 8″ proposal in Mirror Scheme H or in another more appropriate location, it is entirely possible to decouple the Green Line Extension planning and design from the maintenance and storage facility because the facility is not part of the mandated 2014 Green Line Extension completion deadline.
More comprehensive economic and environmental impact studies are warranted for a project of this magnitude, considering its 100-year lifespan. The Draft EIR should not be allowed to become the Final EIR, locking Somerville into farther unjust burdens, until more thorough planning studies have been completed and a palatable alternative to Yard 8 is identified.
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