Station sites to be proposed
MBTA extension moves ahead
Moving forward with plans to extend the Green Line beyond East Cambridge, state transportation officials tomorrow will reveal their picks for locations of stations and a rail-car maintenance yard along the line through Somerville and Medford.
The announcements come less than three weeks after Governor Deval L. Patrick signed a $3.5 billion transportation bond bill that includes $700 million for multiple transit projects, affirming the state's commitment to extending the Green Line past its Lechmere terminus, said Stephen M. Woelfel, the Executive Office of Transportation's lead official for the project.
The sites, which will be announced at a meeting in Medford of the Green Line Extension Project Advisory Group, are not final but represent the state's preferred placement for station platforms and an 11-acre maintenance yard, based partly on opinions gathered at neighborhood meetings this year, Woelfel said. Tomorrow's meeting is open to the public, although the state will hold a series of additional meetings, most likely in June, to gain additional comment, he said. The state may also reconsider the locations after completing an analysis of expected ridership.
"It's going to be an evolving process, and this is our first set of recommendations," said Woelfel, manager of statewide transit planning.
Many questions remain to be answered, such as where the extension would end, whether public parking would be constructed, and what private property may need to be acquired to accommodate the Green Line route, which would run along the existing commuter-rail corridor. The state is considering running the Green Line to Medford's Hillside neighborhood or continuing it to Route 16 and the Mystic River.
Those questions will largely be answered by an environmental impact report, which the Executive Office of Transportation hopes to complete in September, according to Woelfel. That report will be reviewed, giving the public opportunities to comment on all aspects of the project, he said.
That process will "give people a chance to really see alternatives, to see the impacts of what the different alternatives are, and then to respond - not just based on gut reactions, but based on actual alternatives and analysis," said Carrie Russell, a staff attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, the advocacy group that fought for the state to commit to the Green Line project.
Still, many in Medford are concerned that more answers are not yet available. "They're really moving along quickly here to get it done, without enough adequate information for the city," said Frederick N. Dello Russo Jr., a city councilor and one of Medford's representatives to the citizens advisory group, which the state formed to give officials, residents, and community leaders from Medford, Somerville, and Cambridge more of a voice on the project; Russell is also a member.
Somerville residents and officials have championed the extension, which they envision as the catalyst for enhancing Union Square and boosting property values in the northeast corridor of the city, much as the Red Line extension did for Davis Square. In Medford, though, many are wary that the Green Line could change the nature of their community and bring traffic and parking problems if out-of-town commuters come to Medford to catch the train at its terminus. People are also concerned that private land may be needed, though the state has not yet said what it might need, Dello Russo said.
"I know people are anxious about those questions, and we're going to try to answer them as best we can as we go along," Woelfel said.
Kenneth Krause, a Medford member of the advisory group, said he understands why people in the community are concerned about the Green Line extension, but he believes the state is trying to incorporate public opinion and respect Medford's interests.
"I thought they were sincere at listening to people's concerns, and they stated repeatedly that one of their objectives was to do the project in such a way that they don't have to take any private property," Krause said, citing past neighborhood meetings. "We'll see what they propose."
To avoid a lawsuit from the Conservation Law Foundation, the state committed to the transit project in 1990, initially promising to extend it to Ball Square in Somerville or Tufts University in Medford by 2011. That pledge fell by the wayside for years, though, until pressure from the environmental group, Somerville leaders, and others brought it back to the fore. The state negotiated for an extension through 2014, although officials later said the project may be delayed two years beyond that while the state seeks federal funding for up to half the cost of the project, which could run as high as $600 million.
The bond bill Patrick signed last month keeps the project on track, committing state money for the extension even without federal funding in place.
"That's really great news," Russell said. "And we're happy that the state is moving forward in putting out some proposals and giving the public a chance to respond on an ongoing basis."
The advisory group meeting will be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow at Saint Clement Junior/Senior High School, 579 Boston Ave. in Medford.
Eric Moskowitz can be reached at emoskowitz@globe.com.
