The Housing and Development Committee (HDC) of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC) held its regular monthly meeting this week. Chairperson Renee Stacey Welch and the committee and community members, including Lorenzo Bartoloni, Peter DeCotis, Gert Thorn, Michael Reiskind, Bernard Doherty, Jaya Aiyer, Anne McKinnon, Sarah Freeman, Hannah Reale, Kathy Brown, Celeste Walker, Susan Cibulsky, Carolyn Royce, Esther Beillard, Sara Horsley, Pam Bender, Fred Vetterlein, Allan Jhrer, Joanne Paul, and Willie Mitchell, were on hand for the meeting.
The main topic of discussion was the MBTA’s ongoing Arborway bus garage project. Cibulski and Royce, who are members of the Arborway Garage sub-committee, led the discussion, tracing the history of the project, which dates back to 1999, and the changes that the project has undergone since that time.
The MBTA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Boston in 2001 (then-Boston Mayor Tom Menino was the signatory on behalf of the city) which promised a number of mitigation measures to benefit the Jamaica Plain community, including the set-aside of a minimum of eight acres on the site that would be dedicated for community development purposes such as housing and retail development.
However, that original MOU assumed that the city’s so-called pole yard, a 1.5 acre lot that is adjacent to the MBTA property, no longer would be used by the city. However, Cibulski said that the city since that time has determined that it will be holding onto that 1.5 acres for use by the DPW, which has resulted in a reduction of the area to be given by the T for community development from the original eight acres to 6.5 acres.
Cibulski explained that the purpose of the new garage is to house the T’s anticipated electric bus fleet that will serve Jamaica Plain and the adjacent areas. The MBTA has similar electric-bus garages slated for Quincy and Cambridge, though they too, are falling behind schedule. The electric-bus garage projects are crucial to the T’s goal of having an all-electric bus fleet by 2040.
The T presently is only 15 percent into the design phase of the Arborway garage. It is expected that the construction start date for the garage will be 2025 with a completion date by the end of 2028, more than five years from now (and almost 30 years since a garage was first proposed).
Cibulski outlined the committee’s priorities: A commitment to an interactive community design process with meetings on a regular schedule; incorporation of the city’s DPW yard into the MBTA’s design; that the community must receive eight acres for community use; schematics must be included for interior and exterior uses of the MBTA buildings and property; height impacts to include consideration of the 10′ rise in the grade of the yard; avoid/mitigate blank wall facades on sides facing the Arborway and residential buildings on Washington St.; Locust St./Stonybrook neighborhood, and Forest Hills St. across from Franklin Park; provide a green landscaping buffer; use stepbacks, setbacks, and exterior materials to reduce massing; create quality space for the impact mitigation land; ensure sufficient space between residences and the bus facility; and clarify the uses along the edges of Lotus St. and the Arborway for greenspace and address the Emerald Necklace Reconnector.
Committee and community members then offered their views on the project, expressing near-unanimity that the T is falling short of the promises it has made.
Freeman, noting the reduction in the community acreage and that the original garage was meant to house 118 buses, but now will house more than 200 buses, said that the changes in the project reflect “poor treatment of the host community.”
Doherty and Jhrer also took the T and the city to task for what they asserted has been the failure both to live up to the promises and goals they made in the original MOU.
Thorn made the point that the loss of the pole yard (which is on the opposite side of the site from the community development acreage) should have no impact on the amount of land available for community development purposes and that the T should absorb the reduction in acreage available for its garage. He also suggested that the garage could be constructed over the DPW yard.
Brown said that affordable housing on the community development acreage should be a major priority, though Thorn noted that the reduction in the acreage makes housing development problematic.
All of those in attendance were encouraged by Welch to attend the community meeting that the T was slated to conduct on June 22 (yesterday). The committee then adjourned until its next meeting in July.