Green Line Extension: City Seeks Petition Signatures, Expresses Frustration
As the city collects signatures, the Conservation Law Foundation, whose legal actions pushed for the Green Line extension, weighs its options.
The city of Somerville has circulated an online petition calling for a definitive plan for the Green Line extension, and it is seeking 1000 signatures by the end of the day.
The petition comes after news that plans to complete the Green Line extension have been delayed. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation, in a status report filed Monday, announced the project would be completed sometime between 2018 and 2020.
The Conservation Law Foundation, whose efforts in the 1990s and afterward led to a legal obligation that the state to complete the Green Line extension by the end of 2014, is weighing its options in the wake of Monday's announcement.
Meanwhile, Joseph Curtatone, mayor of Somerville, speaking Tuesday on New England Cable News, said "The Green Line will happen," but he said the process "has been somewhat frustrating and comical" and he called for "predictability and clarity, [and] an accurate, transparent timeline."
Signatures
As of approximately 4:15p.m., the city had collected 952 signatures on a petition that states, "A four-year delay of the Green Line Extension bereft of any tangible commitments from the Commonwealth is simply unacceptable," and, "We demand that a definitive plan for the Green Line Extension be adopted."
The city is hoping to collect 1000 signatures by the end of Thursday, but would like to "get as many as we can," said Michael Meehan, a spokesperson for the city of Somerville.
Meehan said the city will take the petition to the governor and other state officials in an effort to "[keep] the state's feet to the fire on this."
"This"—the Green Line extension—"is as popular a project as they could ever come up with," said Meehan.
"The state needs to start figuring out what it can deliver," he said. "We should have this well under way in the next few years."
Legal obligation
Massachusetts has a legal obligation to complete the Green Line extension project, which would bring the MBTA's Green Line subway line into Somerville and Medford.
This obligation stems from commitments the state made to mitigate the effects of increased air pollution resulting from the Central Artery tunnel project, commonly known as the Big Dig.
In the 1990s, the Conservation Law Foundation reached a memorandum of understanding with state transportation agencies, based on the federal Clean Air Act, which led to a state implementation plan for several public transportation projects, designed to offset the increase in automobile traffic from the Big Dig.
Some transit projects were built, but urban projects were neglected, according to the Conservation Law Foundation. As a result, in 1998 the organization threatened to sue state transportation agencies under the Clean Air Act, which led to new timetables for unfinished projects, such as the Green Line extension.
By 2005, after more delays with the project, the cities of Somerville and Medford joined the Conservation Law Foundation in filing another notice of intent to sue. This led to a settlement in 2006 that renewed the state's legal commitment to build the Green Line extension. After some more planning, the mandated date for completion was the end of 2014.
Last year, the state projected the project would actually be complete in 2015, a short delay Somerville was willing to accept, according to Meehan.
A cat chasing a toy
In response to the recent news of project delays, Rafael Mares, a lawyer for the Conservation Law Foundation, said, "We're looking closely at our options." He did not say if the organization would take state transportation agencies to court over the matter.
In regard to taking legal action, Meehan said, "We haven't gone there yet" and that the city's first course of action is to have "serious talks with state leadership."
Mares said, "We're obviously not pleased with the delays."
"The problem with these delays is it's a little like one of those cat chase toys," he said. As soon as you get close, "they pull it away from you."
"In reality, this is legally required," he said of the Green Line extension. He said state transportation agencies "have not yet filed a petition to delay."
"We're getting no explanation"
Speaking on New England Cable News Tuesday, Curtatone expressed frustration with the delays and said, "We're getting no explanation" for them.
He called for "no more arbitrary deadlines."
"When are we breaking ground? What is the project timeline?" he asked.
Garrett Avery
12:17 am on Friday, August 5, 2011
This delay was as predictable as it is outrageous. One has the feeling that with each delay the project slips further into the realm of fantasy. Money will only become more scarce as we sink further into the economic abyss. I can't imagine a more important transportation project in the state from both a strategic and moral perspective. The state needs to reevaluate its priorities, establish clear goals and honor its commitments. Maybe they think the longer they delay, the fewer people will be around to remember or care.
Joe Beckmann
7:22 am on Friday, August 5, 2011
Might we begin to call the construction schedule "Brown's work"? Since, it would seem, all his tenure has produced for this city is ... delay. Or is this purely a "Deval devaluation" and only, and exclusively a state matter? My guess is that it's primarily state, and a long term effect of the "Romney Revolution" of integrating big dig budgets with all other transportation, in order to hide his cozy contracts with the same contractors who later ballooned our costs in Afghanistan and Iraq. If that's the case, which I sense has the best odds, a good piece of research on why Somerville suffers for Romney's Republican success would prove more than anything the Tip O'Neill observation that "all politics are local," and we may be sitting on a time bomb of the next national Republican campaign....