OWNERSHIP
CONDITIONS
CONTEXT
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
DESIGN ISSUES
SOCIAL ISSUES
PLANNING PROCESSES
TESTIMONIES

OWNERSHIP:
-- Under the Arborway Yard Agreement between the MBTA, the City of Boston, and the Community Planning Committee for the Arborway Yard (CPCAY), the MBTA has agreed to transfer eight acres of land at the Arborway Yard to the City of Boston for use by the community when the Arborway Yard is redeveloped. The CPCAY and the City intend to use part of this land for a green connector between Washington Street and Forest Hills Street. 
-- As of March 2002, it was not clear which government agency will have responsibility for maintenance of the greenway. The Boston Redevelopment Authority, the MBTA, the Metropolitan District Commission, private organizations, and community groups are all playing a role in the planning.

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CONDITIONS:
In 2001, the MBTA, the City of Boston, and the Community Planning Committee for the Arborway Yard (CPCAY) agreed to establish a greenway connector between Washington Street, the Arborway, and Forest Hills Street through part of the Arborway Yard.

As of March 2002, plans for the connector are very general. It is likely that the connector will go through Lotus Street and the middle of what is now the Arborway Yard. As of the summer of 2002, Lotus Street is an unpaved road that leads from Forest Hills Street to one house and a swath of private open land. Lotus Street runs along the edge of what is currently the Department of Public Works Pole Yard. The Street could be extended through the northern section of the Arborway Yard, which is now a paved, unproductive wasteland, to join up with Washington Street.

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CONTEXT:
The Emerald Necklace was designed in the late 1800s by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted as an uninterrupted string of parkland that would be accessible to all of Boston. In 2002, the Forest Hills area represents a major break in the Emerald Necklace. Groups such as the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, as well as other local groups, the MDC, and the City's Department of Parks and Recreation all want to reconnect the broken pieces of the Emerald Necklace.

However, in 2002 the Forest Hills area is also a major regional hub of public transportation, lying at the convergence of four major roads. The Casey Overpass, a virtual highway, overshadows the entire area. Some advocacy groups hope to reestablish the original Emerald Necklace connector through the Forest Hills area, while others feel this to be an unrealistic goal and aim to create a new "Emerald Necklace Re-Connector" through the Arborway Yard.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
-- The property where the connector is proposed is moderately contaminated, and mitigation issues are being considered. The groundwater is likely to be contaminated in the Pole Yard site, which may have stored underground oil tanks. New soil would need to be brought in for the greenway, and Pole Yard mitigation would need to occur before the area could be used by the public. 

-- There are concerns among community members about noise and sight pollution from a bus storage facility that is also being planned within the Arborway Yard. Community members want the walls around the bus storage facility to be high so that these types of pollution can be minimized. They also, however, want to maximize sunlight in the green area. The taller the wall, the less sunlight will be able to come into the greenspace. Residents are searching for an appropriate solutions to these conflicting problems.

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DESIGN ISSUES:
The Arborway Yard site has an elevation gradient that changes from 40 feet at Forest Hills to about 30 feet at Washington Street. This gradient impacts the height of the wall that is planned between the bus storage facility and the connector. According to MBTA representatives, the wall might be up to 18 feet tall, with many parts at around 12 feet tall. Along the Arborway the wall must be made of concrete because it is a retaining wall. Citizens have considered the possibility of constructing berms, or mounds of earth, within the connector area to build it up.

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SOCIAL ISSUES:
In community meetings regarding the connector, community members and advocates have discussed whether this area should be called an Emerald Necklace Reconnector, or whether it should simply be referred to as a Green Connector. At a community meeting on March 7, 2002, Simone Auster, director of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, argued that the Arborway connector was originally designed by Olmsted and that no other connector could be considered part of the Emerald Necklace. Members of the Arborway Yard Design Review Committee and the Alternative Uses working group and others said that making the Arborway/ New Washington into a true green connector as originally planned by Olmsted would be an impossible task given present realities. They felt that creating a new pathway to connect Arnold Arboretum to Franklin Park was the best they could hope for.

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PLANNING PROCESSES:
The community's "Alternative Uses Working Group" came up with several alternatives for the former Arborway Yard, and all of them incorporated the use of open space. In response, the City offered to move its Pole Yard to another location in order to open up space for the green connector, as well as the bus storage facility. The connector appears to be one use of the space that can be agreed upon.

Community planning for the Emerald Necklace reconnector is being organized by the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council's Parks and Open Space Committee. The design is to be driven by the community with professional assistance from a landscape architect hired from Johanssen Design by the MBTA for $50,000.

A few early decisions about the design of the site were made as of March 2002. According to Muhammad Ali Salam of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), the BRA and the MBTA decided to put the greenway on the Washington Street side as opposed to the Arborway side based on public health information that they gathered. According to an initial plan, the greenway would be a corridor of a minimum of 60 feet wide and an average of 85 feet wide.

BRA officials estimate that four of the acres deeded to the City by the MBTA would be used for the greenspace and four acres would be used for "the community" for options include housing and businesses.

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TESTIMONIES:
"Creating a loop on the Arborway and the Re-connector could enhance circulation. People like to make loops, whereas a long wall could feel like a 'muggers row' (Samantha Overton Bussell, Metropolitan District Commission, March 7, 2002).

"Right now [the proposed connector] looks like a bowling alley" (Forest Hills resident, community meeting, March 7, 2002).

"This area is not part of the Emerald Necklace. It is not a "Re-Connector." Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Arborway as part of the Emerald Necklace, and I am concerned about how well will the Arborway will be maintained, screened and landscaped so that the park experience can be maintained" (Simone Auster, director of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy).

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