Legal challenge launched to state's Middlesex Fells decision

By Beth Daley Globe Staff

The mayors of Melrose and Medford, joined by a group of citizens, are suing state environmental officials, seeking to overturn a recent decision that would allow construction of an office and residential development adjacent to the Middlesex Fells Reservation without a full environmental review.

Woodland Road in the Fells (David Kamerman/Globe photo)

The lawsuit is the latest move in a nine-year battle over the Gutierrez Company’s attempt to build “Langwood Commons” -- 405 housing units and 225,000 square feet of office space on the site of an old hospital complex in Stoneham surrounded by the state park. Opponents say increased traffic from the redevelopment would cause scenic parkways to be transformed into highway-like roads.

The plaintiffs accuse the state of failing to use its authority to require the developer to apply for state permits to perform roadwork needed because of increased traffic from the project. Such a state permit would have triggered a full environmental review. The group filed a notice of intent to sue -- a legal requirement before the suit is actually filed -- this week. State Environmental Secretary Ian Bowles, state Department of Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Richard Sullivan and the Gutierrez Co. cqare named in the notice.

“They could have interpreted the law any way they wanted to and they interpreted it the wrong way," said Melrose Mayor Rob Dolan. He said the state’s decision takes away the public's right to review the project's impact. “It’s not acceptable.”

State officials have said they had little legal authority to require the company to undergo an environmental review. Instead, they worked out a deal with the developer to pay the state $1.8 million for two rotaries and other traffic changes needed as a result of the proposed project. And they said they were fixing rules to broaden their legal authority in such cases.

"We are reviewing the Notice of Intent to Sue, but should this claim go to court, we are confident that the Secretary's decision on Langwood Commons will be upheld," said Robert Keough, spokesman for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Plaintiffs said in interviews the $1.8 million deal smacked of backdoor politics, one that will result in no public input into how to preserve the Fells natural setting.

“It is not acceptable for the developers to evade proper environmental oversight by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, nor for the state to allow evasion of the review process," said David Hoff, board chairman of the Friends of the Fells advocacy group, which is also part of the suit.