Follow-up Information from Design Workshops
This message has important information for following up on the Green Line Design Workshops sponsored by the Community Corridor Planning Project on May 20, 21 and June 2. It includes a website where you can download all of the station design slides that were presented by the station design teams on June 2nd. Whether you attended the workshops or are seeing the slides for the first time we hope you will be excited about the terrific designs and station ideas that the teams developed.
The CCP (Community Corridor Planning) design workshops for the Green Line Stations were terrific. The energy in the room, the breadth of ideas, the creativity of the designs, the attention to critical details, and your keen knowledge of your neighborhood, resulted in a terrific community start to making sure the Green Line is designed to serve our community well. We think the experience and the products produced were very exciting for everyone in the room.
On June 2nd at the final presentations, everyone agreed that it is critically important to make sure these great ideas are presented to key Mass DOT staff and their consulting team, to our local elected officials and City of Somerville staff. Gretchen Von Grossman and Don Kindsvatter, our workshop consultants, are now assembling all of your great ideas into a final version to be presented to MA DOT. However, we know that submitting the document is only one way to present our ideas. To maximize our impact on the Mass DOT design process we invite you to stay involved, During the next months there will be many opportunities to present your ideas and to keep up to date on the progress of the Green Line extension. A first, important opportunity to do so is this Saturday at the Green Line Informational Workshop.
Below is a list of ways that you can stay involved followed by more detailed information about each
- Continue working on your station design over the summer with your station design group.
- Attend Green Line Informational Workshop hosted by City of Somerville and MA DOT.
- Help get the word out about the Green Line extension and your experience as part of the Design Workshops to local newspapers.
- Write comments on the MA DOT’s Final Environmental Impact Review (FEIR) that should be released no later than June 16th.
- Join your neighbors for a walk of your station area with your Alderman.
- Join one of the working groups!
Continue Design Work: If you want to keep working with your neighbors on your station designs, this summer is a great time to do that, so that your proposals can be presented during the fall when MA DOT holds its own community station design workshops. Nothing speaks louder than well thought out ideas and drawings coming directly from the people that know the area best—YOU. Contact Ellin Reisner, president of STEP if you are interested in doing this, as she can help your group with logistics, finding places to meet, etc. Ellin can be reached at reisnere51@gmail.com or 617-776-1987.
1. Attend Green Line Informational Workshop Hosted by City of Somerville and MA DOT. This workshop will take place on June 12th, at the Argenziano School (Washington Street, Union Square). While informational in nature, there will be an opportunity to meet with members of MA DOT Green Line staff and planning and engineering consultants informally at tables set up with their current maps and designs for the station. It would be great if representatives from each of the station groups from the CCP workshops can attend and informally present the designs and ideas that we heard on June 2nd. These are “draft” ideas, but as Gretchen told us on the 2nd, public input is best received if early in the process and often. We can print off the slides of the designs from each of these stations for you to take to this workshop or you can download the presentation from from Gretchen and Don and then print the pages for your station. It would be great if you could let Ellin (reisnere51@gmail.com) if you plan to attend and will bring your designs and ideas.
2. Help get the word out about the Green Line extension and your experience as part of the Design Workshops to local newspapers! Let us know if you would be willing to write an op-ed, or be interviewed by a reporter to describe your experience with these design workshop. Contact Jen Lawrence from the CCP team to let us know and we will work on getting this to happen: jllawrence@groundworksomerville.org
3. Write and submit comments on the Green Line Final Environmental Impact Review (FEIR) prepared by MA DOT and submitted to the MA Environmental Policy Act Office (MEPA). Information about how and when to send comments will be emailed to you once the FEIR is released. The FEIR, lays out detailed plans for how to address environmental, land use, and community concerns raised at the time of the Draft EIR last winter. At that time hundreds of community residents sent in written comments, and as a result, MA DOTwas required to address key issues by MEPA before getting approval to go forward with the project. You can learn more about what’s in the proposed FEIR by going to www.greenlineextension.org) after June 15th, and also by attending a public hearing on June 30th at the Somerville High School at 6:00 PM This is a critical time to submit ideas that emerged in the workshops such as connectivity, access, integration of the community path into the Green Line extension, etc. Public comments will be due on July 15th. STEP will make a list of key issues in the FEIR available on the STEP website and via email.
4. Join your neighbors for a walk of your station area with your Alderman. If you would like to help coordinate this for your neighborhood or be a part of this, let us know! The goal is to share our ideas with our Aldermen and engage them directly in this process by walking through the potential site and showing them the ideas that came out of the workshops. Contact Jen Lawrence to help plan these walks.
5. Join one of the working groups! The Green Line will have a huge impact on Somerville beyond just improving our transportation options. We are working with groups of people on
a. Affordability and Diversity
b. Jobs, Local Businesses, and Economic Development
c. Open Space, Green Space, and Sustainability
These groups meet regularly, and we encourage more people to join. If interested in being part of a group, contact Lisa Gimbel: lgimbel@somervillecdc.org (617) 776-5931.
Saturday, June 12th the City of Somerville and MA DOT are holding a Green Line Extension Informational Workshop at the Argenziano School at 290 Washington Street. from 10 AM to 3 PM.
There will be a basic presentation and focused discussion on different Green Line Stations and the maintenance facility. You will have an opportunity to review MassDOT’s proposed design, learn a bit about the surrounding neighborhood and give your ideas on the station design and environs. This is also n opportunity to present the design ideas created at the CCP workshops. If you cannot attend at the times listed below, there will be MA DOT staff and consultants at station area tables throughout the event to discuss the station designs and land use around the station. .The schedule for the discussion is:
10:30am – 11:15am – Union Square
11:15am – 11:45pm – Gilman Square
11:45am – 12:15pm – Lowell Street
12:15pm – 12:45pm – Ball Square
12:45pm – 1:30pm – Washington Street / Brickbottom
1:30pm – 2:00pm – Route 16
2:00pm – 2:45pm – Maintenance Facility
2:45pm – 3:00pm – Wrap-Up