OWNERSHIP
CONDITIONS
CONTEXT
HISTORY
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
DESIGN ISSUES
PLANNING PROCESSES
TESTIMONIES

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OWNERSHIP:
According to the 2001 agreement between the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), and the Community Planning Committee for the Arborway Yard (CPCAY): 

-- Nine and a half acres of the site are owned by the MBTA to be used for Arborway Bus Storage and Repair Facility (this includes the current MBTA office complex at 500 Arborway and the City of Boston Department of Public Works Pole Yard). 

-- Eight acres of the land have been deeded to the City for community uses that are yet to be determined but that will include some kind of green area that is often referred to as the "Emerald Necklace Re-Connector" or the "green connector." 

-- Point eight (0.8) of an acre is designated for the MBTA Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) facility for the Arborway trolley. 
 
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CONDITIONS:
The "Arborway Yard" refers to an 18.3-acre site northeast of the Forest Hills MBTA Station. The area is -- very roughly -- V-shaped. The site includes the City of Boston Department of Public Works' "Pole Yard" site that is adjacent to the MBTA's 500 Arborway property.

Most of the land currently lies paved and unused. There is a chainlink fence with a barbed wire border. There are weeds inside and broken-up concrete, bricks, and glass, although the area is not dominated by trash and is patrolled by the MBTA police (reached at 222-1212). There is a $3 all day Park and Lock lot within the Arborway Yard.

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CONTEXT:
The Arborway Yard is located next to a blighted section of Washington Street. In 2002, areas bordering the Arborway Yard were dominated by industrial uses, including Forest Hills Electrical Supply and the Hughes Oilheat facility. Part of the northwest boundary is Lotus Street, which is mostly unpaved and has one home on it. According to Design Review Committee member Gail Sullivan, the area has been considered "polluted, not precious - a nothing." However, the area in and around the Arborway Yard is significant and valuable for several reasons: 

-- The area represents an extraordinary opportunity for transit-oriented development because it is right next to the Forest Hills MBTA Station and because Jamaica Plain has a particularly acute housing crunch.

-- The historically significant Arborway parkway borders the Arborway Yard. Although this section of the Arborway is currently in poor condition, it is a critical connection in the Emerald Necklace. Future efforts by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and the Department of Environmental Management Historic Parkways Initiative to reestablish this connection could be reinforced or hindered by the planning process that takes place at the Arborway Yard. 

-- Master planning processes are underway for the Arborway (through the Boston Department of Parks and Recreation), and are pending for the Forest Hills area as a whole (through the Boston Redevelopment Authority). Significant time, energy, and planning will go into this area in the near future. 

-- Larger scale repercussions of the bus storage facility are seldom considered, but also important. When the Arborway Yard bus storage facility opens, the Bartlett Street bus garage in Roxbury (which residents say is toxic and polluted and which was only intended to be a temporary facility) will be closed down. The Bartlett Street facility is a source of much concern and possibly many health problems in the Dudley Square area. In particular, the Bartlett Street facility is associated with the high asthma rates among Roxbury's children. Getting the MBTA facility up in a timely manner will benefit not only the MBTA, but also the Dudley Square community and all Bostonians who are subject to the pollution from diesel buses on the streets.

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HISTORY:
The Arborway Yard has long been a source of blight in the neighborhood. An extraordinary number of citizens have invested significant resources to negotiate a plan for the redevelopment of the yard that is acceptable to both the MBTA and the community. Progress towards that goal has been made over time, but still no final agreement has been reached.

There was, however, an agreement in 2001 between the MBTA and the CPCAY. This agreement resolved what had been major points of contention, such as the number of buses that will be stored at the facility. The MBTA originally wanted to have 180 buses at the facility while the CPCAY was willing to agree to only 69 buses at the site. The 2001 agreement reached a compromise of having 118 buses at the site.

Other parts of the agreement included the following:
-- There will be no diesel buses at the site.
-- All access points will be located along Arborway side of the site.
-- There will be a traffic study done to aid planning.
-- An Emerald Necklace Re-Connector will stretch between Washington and Forest Hills Streets and will
average 85-ft in width.
-- The MBTA will pay for a landscape architect for the Re-Connector.
-- The Washington St./ Arborway corner of the site will be a special entryway for the Re-Connector.
-- The bus facility will be designed to meet visual and acoustical mitigation measures, including light pollution,
sound barriers, and visual screening measures.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
Air and noise pollution:
Community members involved in planning for the redevelopment of the Arborway Yard have worked to ensure that the quality of the environment for surrounding neighborhoods is not diminished as a result of the construction of the bus facility. They have demanded that there be no addition in air or noise pollution in either the daytime or the nighttime as a result of the facility.

Air pollution emitted from diesel buses has been a concern throughout the Heart of the City because diesel vehicles emit carbon particulate matter and nitrogen oxides that develop into smog and can trigger asthma attacks. The buses that will be stored in the Arborway Yard facility will be fueled with compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than diesel. Although some residents argue that compressed natural gas buses emit equally harmful pollutants into the environment, this opinion does not seem to have currency among most residents.

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DESIGN ISSUES:
There are a host of technical and theoretical design issues that have been hashed out between members of the CPCAY, the Design Review Committee, and the MBTA. They include the following:

500 Arborway:
Perhaps no issue has become as critical in the debate between the community and the MBTA as the question of 500 Arborway, which in 2002 may have brought the planning process to an impasse. The MBTA has a large office building at 500 Arborway that is considered an older facility but that the MBTA has made significant improvements to in recent years. While the CPCAY (with widespread community support) argues the building should be demolished, the MBTA insists the building must be incorporated into the new facility.

Walls:
When the bus facility is built, there will be high walls along Washington Street, the Arborway, and the future Green Connector. The exact height of the wall has yet to be established, but in order to protect the building and mitigate sound the walls will need to be at least 20 feet tall.

Gateway:
A "Gateway" to the area has been proposed at the corner of the Arborway Yard at Arborway and Washington Street. According to two members of the Arborway Yard Design Review Committee, the intersection of Washington Street and the Arborway is an urban node where several neighborhoods come together. They feel there should be a sense that one is entering all of these communities through a formal, welcoming edifice. It is not clear that there will be sufficient space for a gateway such as the one imagined by the community under the MBTA plans.

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PLANNING PROCESSES:
Goodkind & O'Dea, Inc. is the architectural/engineering/planning firm that is designing the bus facility for the MBTA. In December 2001, the firm completed a conceptual design of the facility, which has been analyzed by community members and discussed extensively in public meetings. As each phase of design is completed by the architects, there have been opportunities for the public to comment on the plans.

According to Steven Paradis, planner for the Arborway Yard bus facility design from Goodkin & O'Dea, there will be spaces for 250 vehicles beneath the bus garage. Major excavation will be necessary. Work on the facility will be rapid because the compressed natural gas (CNG) buses have been ordered and when they come they must have a facility that is capable of fueling them. A temporary bus facility in the Arborway Yard is to be used for a maximum period of 24 months while the new facility is being constructed. There was an estimated Spring 2005 finish date. An Environmental Notification Form (ENF) was submitted to the Secretary of Environmental Affairs regarding the proposed facility. The Secretary then issued a certificate on the Environmental Notification Form, which indicated that the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report is not required under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act.

In her certificate report, the Secretary recommended that the MBTA investigate the possibility of relocating parking spaces in the facility in order to provide additional greenspace along the Arborway. She encouraged the MBTA to route all buses into and out of the facility via Washington Street rather than the Arborway, in light of the Arborway's special status as a historic parkway. The Secretary did not require the MBTA to relocate its 500 Arborway facility.

The Jamaica Plain Open Space Committee initiated a public process to plan for the Emerald Necklace Re-Connector/ the Greenway Connector. Community members generated a"wish-list" in March of 2002 with the landscape architect who will be responsible for designing the site (see entry for Arborway re-connector/ Emerald Necklace Re-connector/ Green connector). A professional landscape architect developed plans for the space and presented them to community members in January 2003.

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TESTIMONIES:
 "Admittedly, various developments, inappropriate intrusions, and deferred maintenance over time have significantly altered the character of the Commonwealth's historic parkways.  There is no greater example of the effects of this neglect than the quarter-mile stretch of the Arborway from Forest Hills Street to Washington Street, which has been adversely affected by the Casey Overpass, the Forest Hills MBTA Station, the District Courthouse parking, and potentially by this proposed development [for the Arborway Yard]. The proposed MBTA Arborway Facility can and should improve the Arborway, without compromising the MBTA's use of the site.  Given the existing condition of this section of the Arborway, this can be accomplished without additional cost and without significant impact to MBTA operations" (Certificate of the Secretary of Environmental Affairs on the Environmental Notification Form, January 23, 2003).

"It seems like the tail wagging the dog to plan around 500 the Arborway" (Rick Ames, local architect and member of the Design Review Committee of the CPCAY. A designer of the community alternative plan for the Arborway Yard, June 5, 2002).

"We are absolutely not taking 500 Arborway down" (Bob Fagone, deputy director of design and construction for the MBTA, June 2002).

"This is an industrial site. We think of it as a nothing, as polluted, as not precious. But it IS precious. It is every bit as precious as the land around Back Bay Station. This is a chance to get rid of the blight" (Gail Sullivan, local architect and member of the Design Review Committee, June 5, 2002). 

"...the [Arborway Yard] site is far better suited to redevelopment as desperately needed affordable housing than as a regional fueling, storage, and repair facility for natural gas-powered buses" (Kevin Handley, "The wrong place for storing buses," The Boston Globe, Jan. 25, 2003). 

"[The MBTA plan for the Arborway Yard site] ignores initiatives that support the protection and management of our special roadways, including the Arborway Master Plan, the state's Historic Parkways Initiative (from which the Arborway could benefit in the future), and the Emerald Necklace master plans." (Simone Auster, director of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, letter to the editor, "Special opportunity in Jamaica Plain," The Boston Globe, Jan. 29, 2003).

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