Tag: Rt 99

One Mystic Avenue PNF Comment Letter

One Mystic Avenue PNF Comment Letter

Raul Duverge
Boston Planning and Development Agency
Re: One Mystic Avenue PNF

Dear Mr. Duverge:

WalkBoston has reviewed the PNF for the One Mystic Avenue Project with respect to its impacts and benefits for people walking and using transit. We would like to echo the concerns raised by a number of others during the public meeting held on May 18th, that the project seems to be getting ahead of the PLAN Charlestown process and that the proponents have put forth a project that would use a great deal of the development capacity envisioned for this part of Charlestown on one small site. We urge the development team to work with the community as the project scale and design are refined to find a better fit with the overall planning context of the site.

From a walking perspective we have several specific concerns. While we are pleased that the project is proposed to be transit oriented and to have a low parking to housing unit ratio, and a high transit and walking mode share, the proposal does not seem to include the attention to walking that would be needed to make it a successful TOD site. Nor does the plan seem to include the attention to walking that will need to be made to attract people from Charlestown and Sullivan Station to use the proposed retail and food uses planned for the site.

  1. The existing walking connection from the development site to Sullivan Station is not comfortable or attractive due to the lack of sidewalks on the south side of Mystic Avenue, and requires a circuitous route with many street crossings due to the fact that there are no marked pedestrian crossings between Beacham Street and Grand Union Boulevard. The walk to the Charlestown neighborhood is even more difficult due to the complexity of traversing Sullivan Square on foot despite recent short-term sidewalk improvements, and the continued existence of Rutherford Avenue/State Route 99 as a below-grade high-speed arterial.
  2. Based on the transportation improvements listed in the PNF (page 4-22) and the proponent’s answer during the public meeting, the project team is not proposing to include off site walking improvements in their transportation mitigation measures.
  3. As indicated during the public meeting, the proponent is anticipating that walking connections to Sullivan Station and to the Charlestown neighborhood would be improved by the Sullivan Square/Rutherford Avenue Boston Transportation Department (BTD) street redesign project. However, with the proponent’s hope to be open for occupancy in 2024-2025, they are well ahead of the BTD project schedule. Without an agreed-upon plan in existence, that project has been pushed out on the Transportation Improvement Plan funding schedule, with the full construction budget not yet programmed through 2025.

We urge the proponent to re-think their off-site walking mitigation measures in order to create the kind of safe, attractive and convenient walking routes that will be needed to fulfill their proposed housing and retail programs and to ensure the potential for a truly transit oriented project. We also urge the proponent to engage in the PLAN Charlestown effort and the Sullivan Square/Rutherford Avenue planning effort to speak up for the high quality pedestrian and bicycle connections to make this site work for walking, biking and transit.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments.

Sincerely,

Stacey Beuttell, Executive Director

Wendy Landman, Senior Policy Advisor