Mass Hort settles on Greenway

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has given up its longstanding claim to three prime blocks of the emerging Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

Greenway and Mass Hort executives said today they have formally agreed that the blocks between South Station and the Evelyn Moakley bridge will become the responsibility of the Greenway Conservancy, a private group that oversees the rest of the new corridor of parks.

Under an agreement signed by the two groups, which for several months had feuded over control of the parcels, Mass Hort will assist the Conservancy and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority in developing modestly appointed parks there.

They are scheduled to be completed by fall, along with the rest of the Greenway parks.

"The Conservancy is the landlord for the rest of the Greenway, so why not have them stem-to-stern?" William N. McDonough, president of Mass Hort's board of trustees, said today. Peter Meade, chairman of the Greenway Conservancy, said, "We think we have a partner for all the parcels on the Greenway."

Mass Hort has agreed to work with the Conservancy to maintain and improve the entire corridor of parks, the two groups said.

Environmental approvals for the Big Dig highway construction project more than 15 years ago called for a glass botanical "winter garden" on the three blocks assigned to the horticultural society, but the group made no progress.

The agreement announced today is essentially what Meade called for last year, when he asked the Turnpike authority to "de-designate" the society from what had been referred to as the "Mass Hort parcels." Those are now being called the "garden parcels," and at least for the first few years will have grass, rows of trees, flower beds, walking paths of stone dust, and perimeters of brick sidewalks.

A public process led by the Boston Redevelopment, expected to take more than a year, will determine whether a permanent structure is appropriate or feasible in the future.

The other Greenway parks, from the North End to Chinatown, are more elaborately designed, with plantings, public spaces, and water features.

Meade said it has not been determined how much the Conservancy will pay Mass Hort for its expertise.

Meanwhile, he said, the Conservancy now has commitments for $16.2 million of the $20 million that it is required to raise by the end of this year as a Greenway endowment, to help finance its future operations.
(Thomas C. Palmer, Jr., Globe staff)