Taming traffic on Rte. 128
Communities join to face the future
Worried about an estimated 100,000 new daily vehicle trips that could be generated by 15 proposed developments on a local stretch of Interstate 95, several communities in this area have formed a collaborative to brainstorm strategies for reducing the traffic.
The 128 Central Corridor Coalition, comprising officials from Lexington, Lincoln, Waltham, and Weston, aims to build new safeguards into state permitting rules that would allow communities to coordinate alternatives to driving for the developments in the pipeline, two of which would be so large they would dwarf the Burlington Mall.
"Now, it's a very haphazard process," said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which is helping the communities to formulate alternatives. "What we want to do is develop a corridor plan that would assess impacts in a common way and try to get all the developers to contribute in a way that would really mitigate the im pacts."
The coalition members say I-95 (or Route 128 locally) - famous for its stop-and-crawl traffic at peak commuting times - is destined to become a parking lot if the new developments proceed without collaborative planning. If they succeed in reducing traffic, the group could become a model for the state in how to plan for other development hotspots, they say.
However, the members add, their push for more planning and mitigation measures by developers should not be seen as anti-development.
"It's really not our intention to block development," said Lexington Selectwoman Jeanne K. Krieger, a member of the coalition. "It's our intention to have development that's sustainable."
Draisen said the state should favor formation of "mitigation banks" to which developers would contribute. The banks could finance regional transportation programs, such as shuttle buses, to relieve roads of congestion. The banks also could support other regional initiatives, such as protections for drinking water supplies.
Draisen argues that development without adequate traffic controls stymies not just residents but also the businesses themselves, stalling receipt and delivery of goods and employee commuting.
The ideas made sense to local leaders. Earlier this month, representatives from the four communities signed a memorandum of understanding pledging to cooperate on increasing mass transit options, creating mitigation banks, developing shared zoning bylaws to standardize traffic mitigation, and coordinating planning on the stretch of I-95 between the Massachusetts Turnpike and Route 3.
Lincoln Selectwoman Sara A. Mattes, a coalition member, said local officials long have worried about the prospect of being choked by traffic from rapid economic development along I-95, and were frustrated by their inability to control it community by community. Now they will be able to coordinate plans.
"We all have micro-agendas that are different, but our macro-agenda is totally shared," Mattes said.
The coalition's first major challenge came from the proposed Commons at Prospect Hill, an office, retail, and restaurant project planned for the former Polaroid site in Waltham. At 1.7 million square feet, the $800 million project would be larger than the Burlington Mall, at 1.4 million square feet.
According to the developer, Related Cos LP, of New York, best known for its
The four communities requested the help of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council after it informed them at a meeting in January that the Commons at Prospect Hill was only one of 15 developments in the works. Seven of that number are being planned in Waltham, as well as five in Burlington, two in Lexington, and one in Weston. In addition, the council said there was the potential for 11 other projects - one in Lexington, two in Lincoln, seven in Waltham, and one in Weston - that had not been formally proposed.
Among the projects that have been unveiled is a life sciences complex proposed for 270 acres in Burlington. The biotech-related project, proposed by Patriot Partners LLC, of Framingham, would include laboratories, offices, and up to 2,000 units of senior housing. At 2 million square feet, the project would be even bigger than the Commons at Prospect Hill.
At the January meeting, the coalition members also learned that the developments could increase daily trips on area roads and highways by 100,000, and clog I-95 with twice as much traffic as today.
"That really piqued our interest," Krieger, who attended the meeting, said last week.
The coalition has already gotten the ear of state Secretary of Environmental Affairs Ian A. Bowles. In March, in response to a Draft Environmental Impact Report submitted for the Commons at Prospect Hill, Bowles said the developer did not comply adequately with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act.
Bowles, citing the coalition, noted that traffic from that and other projects proposed for the region "threatens to strain the capacity of I-95 and other nearby regional highways and roads well beyond their capacity, and to reduce mobility in the corridor."
And that's despite a pledge by the Commons at Prospect Hill developer that it would spend $45 million on traffic mitigation for Waltham, including building two bridges over I-95.
Bowles asked for a supplemental report addressing area-wide traffic mitigation and other concerns.
Strategies such as the 128 Central Corridor Coalition's are not expected to sit well with developers. As Bowles noted in his comments, the developer of the Commons at Prospect Hill had resisted expanding the traffic analysis, saying the regional approach is not required by law.
In an e-mail last week, Related Cos LP spokeswoman Carolyn L. Spicer said the developer "is working with the state to explore all possibilities for improvements in the corridor with an aim towards implementing a plan to address traffic conditions in the immediate development area."
She did not provide details.
Connie Paige can be reached at connie_paige@com.
