by Barry M. Steinberg
Association for Public Transportation
DRAFT
Craig Della Penna, Rails to Trails Conservancy, New England Field Office.
We are getting a grant: A six-mile section of former railroad in East Longmeadow, MA, is being bought from Guilford Transportation Industries for preservation. They are having a fire sale for property currently. A bridge was involved. The line was severed, and the bridge replaced by a fill. The Bemis Branch. In Springfield, a developer wants to buy the rail bed; the State is almost powerless to stop this.
Chapter 40, Section 54A* of the Massachusetts General Laws gives the impression that you can buy a part of a trail, but it is difficult to build on or close to it. You have to get permission from the Secretary of Transportation and Construction.
Now the meetings are more open to the public. In Watertown, a Lexus dealer owns part of the Watertown Branch. He was asked for the trail to go through [his property].
Senate Bill 1857 would allow for streamlining of the process, bypassing the Secretary of Transportation. I think this is a bad idea.
The Mystic Wharf Branch: Very expensive land. It is a wide corridor, and could provide a rail with trail, and even a haul road.
Transit trails: A trail network with eighteen MBTA stops nearby. Just trains? No. A transit authority near St. Louis has bought up trails.
There is a to do in West Roxbury: The T has made dormant trails available to towns for free. The locals want to stop this. For a cooling-off period to resurrect it as a trail, to connect nodes of transit-oriented development.
In New Hampshire, we helped the State of New Hampshire protect the Cheshire Line. They took it by eminent domain in order to clear the title. We may also do this [sort of thing] here.
Buzz Constable, Transit Realty Associates and of A. W. Perry (a development firm).
Rail banking makes a lot of sense, whether in West Roxbury or New Hampshire. Transit Realty Associates began in 1996 as the real estate arm of the MBTA. We started out and told the T how much land it has. We established a geographic information system (GIS), to be able to think of their real estate as an asset.
A University of Massachusetts study on sprawl shows that sprawl is one of the ten highest public priorities [concerns?--ed.] in the Boston area.
Transit Realty Associates also manages the Dunkin Donuts leases at stations, etc. We also do dispositions, which include easements.
We are obligated to go out and look for development opportunities without affecting transportation. There is an eight-week process in which everyone at the T has the opportunity to veto the disposition of [assets]. The T is very attentive to protect its transit opportunities. Unlike some public authorities, everything is subject to a public bid. The land goes to the highest bidder who can show they can do what is proposed.
West Roxbury policy, February of 2001. Alternative transportation corridors are important to provide an alternative to single-occupancy vehicle. Sometimes these corridors are sold at commercial rates. In West Roxbury, the City, before this idea went out, was approached. They said they weren't interested in it as a transit corridor. The T said ‘Time out, let's take a look'. Maybe there is a corridor that makes sense. It is a wide corridor, 120 feet wide in many places. The T is looking at it at the moment.
Why are we trying to sell them? There are those who want the T to fix up and plant them up. But the T wants to spend their money on transportation. And the T needs non-fare revenue as well.
Cellular telephone on the subways would have generated $5 million for the T. We, Transit Realty Associates, turn over $10 million to $15 million annually to the T. We also have to provide transit-oriented development.
Another reason for sprawl is housing affordability. Let's put it in the right place. One person's solution to sprawl is to link transportation and land use strategies to promote compact development. Prioritize transportation development while encouraging transit-oriented development through zoning [processes].
You have to suggest to us where the opportunities are. These are subject to zoning and all other local considerations.
The Massachusetts Avenue bus terminal in Arlington. We disposed of half for development of a senior citizens center and the other half is a bus facility. Ashmont Station: We would 31,000 sq. ft. we put out for bid. A reputable developer put in a bid for it. The neighborhood is astoundingly happy because the proceeds will go into the station. North Quincy Station will have the same amount of parking, but a large transit-oriented housing development is going in. Woodland Station, Newton: A rectilinear parcel of land. Readville: Yard 5, 42 acres that the T never used. It is less polluted than people think.
On the Boston/Dedham line, a new neighborhood could come out of this development. Mike Mulhern said we will clean the site, but the only way is through selling it.
In Newburyport, there is a bunch of land they acquired. This includes eighteen acres adjacent to Route One and the railroad station. The T likes to build on the edge of cities.
You are in the public eye of political responsiveness to the cities and towns. We have to go through these projects carefully.
Porter Square. [Contrary to rumors, there is and will remain enough clearance to accommodate double-deck commuter cars.] [THIS WAS NOT IN MY NOTES, BUT I REMEMBER THIS POINT BEING MADE--ed.] Doug Foy's office has set up a task force about transit oriented sites. Canal Street, near North Station. The T can derive revenue from this. Mishawum Station is one of the most strategic sites on Route 128. The opportunity for transit-oriented development is very great.
Astrid Glynn, Deputy Secretary for Planning, Executive Office of Transportation and Construction
Allston Landing: The importance of just one property.
As you have heard, there are a lot of factors pushing and pulling on transportation assets. We have to see that these have been developed, because they got people and goods from somewhere to somewhere.
Circumstances where we have succeeded and failed in protecting facilities.
Principle: Nature abhors a vacuum. But sometimes a vacuum is important, as in the South Boston Haul Road. It is only a two-lane road, sometimes without shoulders. It was intended for transportation in South Boston without using local streets. Freight traffic is expected to double in the next twenty years.
We are looking at increasing commuter rail service to Worcester. CSX doesn't want to impede its service. Rail lines that once were double-tracked or even triple-tracked were pulled up. Since then we have had a revival of commuter rail. CSX has told us that to put on more service would take $30 million in investment.
Where these are private sector entities, it is difficult to tell the property owner not to follow their legitimate business interest.
ALLSTON: The Turnpike had legitimate revenue objectives. Harvard has its own interests. Harvard will I'm sure be proceeding to some development. We have to look at how does the site work for transportation in the widest context. Allston rail yards are a complex transportation facility. I believe we have not made a perfect arrangement, but there is a process to preserve at least the basics.
CORRIDORS: We have been preserving some other pieces. In Watertown, one mile that connects two bikeways. These are very expensive pieces of property, and there is not a lot of money coming in from anywhere. The cost is going up, but so are land prices.
We have to assign priorities, and choose which are most important. We helped Massport buy the Mystic Branch for access to the port for freight line and also truck access.
We need help to identify the best opportunities for purchase.
The T needs a revenue stream before a fare increase. The T no longer has an open pocket to the State budget, yet it still has the old responsibilities. The T has the opportunity to cash out on land and at the same time have transit-oriented development. A real win-win situation for the T and the neighborhoods.
Worcester Union Station is a beautiful building. It should be the gateway to development of a community. We are working on re-development of safe pedestrian access to the site without getting run over.
HOW TO PRIORITIZE SITES AND PURPOSES: Our responsibility is to get the highest transportation use. Non-transportation uses, even with high pay back, are secondary. The situation is fractionalized in terms of governance. We are all over the place where we have structural ownership of transportation facilities and sometimes even the boundaries don't even match up. We have to look at all modes, not assume.
On the Cape, the railroad line goes right past the airport. Few trains. Bust, should we have a grade crossing? We have to look at all modes. We have to be visionary. Twenty or thirty years ago, we WERE visionary. When the railroads were going bankrupt, we bought the lines.
The Cape Cod Bike Trail: Why are we taking a corridor and making a bikeway out of it? A major tourist draw.
We need back of the house facilities. We need lay-up (i.e. daytime) storage facilities for trains, to be contrasted with layover (i.e. overnight) storage .We may see Allston have this. How do we prioritize these things? On Bell Avenue, there is a fine line between neighborhood compatibility and NIMBY. They have to live with this every day. We have to be respectful of them. Neighborhoods with high visibility enemies tend not be funded. Is there a sponsor ready to take over a project? With the Metropolitan District Commission [being turned over to the Commonwealth], there are close ties with state.
Facilities should not be eyesores. The ability to maintain property is very important.
Cape Cod: Also land which serves a regional economy.
We need the projects to have well-funded, perpetual, public responsibility, which means they usually are public entities.
Chapter 40 Section 54A is the process by which we have to approve building on former railroad facilities. Local specialized agencies often don't feel able to come forward to express concern about these [subjects].
Curtis Davis, moderator: The issue is of networks. Highway, air networks, computer networks, bodily networks, prioritization. Creative ways of connections linking between modes. Prioritization and the methodologies to do this.
Astrid Glynn: Allston Landing [made] a mistake; there is no mechanism for all transportation agencies to get together and discuss their concerns. I am trying to establish a better forum, even though we are institutionally factionalized, in order to at least tell each other about our plans.
Q: Another way to deal with this is to eliminate the independence of some authorities by legislation. Has there been though given to promulgating [such] legislation?
A (Glynn): That is why we should have a real Department of Transportation, to restrain independence of authorities. For example, the Massachusetts Turnpike. We suggested the model of the T Board is a good one, because they have a large responsibility. Change by way of legislation? I don't know how this affects bondholders.
Q (Bryce..) What is happening with relation to encroachment on [transportation] land?
A. Buzz Constable, Transit Realty: Prior to the creation of Transit Realty Associations, there was no mechanism to detect encroachment, but we are now working on it. These are tough problems to fund and to litigate. If [they are] encroaching with a building, the courts are reluctant to tell them t6o tear down the building, especially if they do not affect operations.
A. Craig [?] The best work in rolling back encroachers was the MDC in Watertown. There was egregious encroachment where we took care of it.
Q: Sometime people think that by making an encroachment, we can stop a project.
A. Once a path is under way, we can jump-start a program to beat back encroachment.
Q (John Kyper): Don't design in defect in a corridor. I live in the Fort Hill area of Roxbury, near the trail. My area is the narrowest portion of the park, where pedestrians and bicyclists are in conflict, next to a twenty-foot wide part of land technically part of the park, but which needs considerable construction to make it part of the train, and therefore probably is impractical.
A: This is a dilemma. A right of way that varies between forty and 120 feet wide. The T has to balance transit needs and development needs.