Town Meeting Greenway Articles 12 & 13

I have received questions about articles for the Town Meeting warrant that the Bikeway/Greenway committee proposed.  So this post will give a little background about what these are and why they were proposed.

What are they?

Currently some businesses have licenses to use land that is within the Railroad Right-of-Way property that will become the Greenway.  These agreements expire on June 30, 2014. 

Articles 12 and 13 ask voters to consider the issue of leasing town land on the Rail Road Right of Way (the 50 foot wide path) that will be used for the future Tri-Community Greenway. 

Article 12 simply extends a current zoning overlay district passed by Town Meeting in 2009 that allowed land on the Greenway ROW to be used for businesses purposes until June 2014 or until needed for the construction of the Greenway.  Article 12 extends the June 2014 date to June 2015.  See page 15-50 of our town code for more information about the zoning: http://www.stoneham-ma.gov/sites/stonehamma/files/u59/chapter_15.pdf#page=50 

Article 13 authorizes the Town Administrator to negotiate new licenses on the land subject to a number of conditions for the protection of interests of the Town of Stoneham.  This does not require any new agreements; it just authorizes Mr. Ragucci to negotiate the possibility.  It also puts in place a number of conditions on any license.

• First and foremost, any agreement would be at market rate, which they are not now. 
• Licenses would be short term and end with limited notice if the land was needed for Greenway construction and/or planning.
• No licenses would be issued until any fences and other obstructions are cleared, and the public can access the full length of the ROW public land. 
• No one would be allowed to license the use of more than 25 feet of the land width and none would be allowed on any portion of the ROW that is slated for the Greenway project (which does not use the full width of the ROW in all spots).
• Lastly, any licensees would need to post a bond that would pay for any remaining obstructions or debris on the property at the end of any license, and return the property to a natural state.

 Frankly, members of the BW/GW committee were torn about whether to propose these articles and whether or not any portion of the ROW should be used for anything except open space.  The committee voted to move forward with articles because firstly, we felt this was a decision for Town Meeting, not just the committee. Since it seemed unlikely that construction would start before June 2015, the licenses would help business and continue to raise funds for Greenway maintenance. However, if any new agreements for the land were made, the committee wanted the protections that are listed in Article 13.  Any one benefiting from public land should certainly be paying market rate for it.  Most members were also concerned that current licenses should not be extended as is, because part of the Greenway route where the land is being used is blocked off from public access.

So What’s Changed? 

In April, there was a meeting with MassDOT including all three towns involved in the Tri-Community project to review progress and the schedule moving forward.  One issue discussed was a final survey to figure out exactly what ROW area will be used for the project.  The Warrant Articles to allow licenses in were also discussed.  MassDOT was very surprised to hear about the articles and expressed concern that this could interfere with the project. MassDOT advised that the Town not go forward with any licenses to use the land, even for the short term, because the ROW needs to be cleared for the project to proceed.  (and that final survey will not be done until late summer).

Basically, No licenses for land slated for the project or any adjacent areas needed for construction can be allowed during the project (not just during construction but also some legal work to clear the ROW and during the bidding process.)  This includes several months of prep work this summer to complete surveys and during the construction process starting in 2015.  Basically, MassDOT completely controls the land during the construction period.  This created two issues – 1) We do not know what land will not be used for the project yet 2) There are only a few months possible for licenses in this time window. 

In light of this new information from MassDOT, the Stoneham Bikeway/Greenway Committee voted to Indefinitely Postpone Articles 12 and 13.  The survey process will start this summer and likely continue through August or September. The committee may revisit the topic of leases in September and reconsider the options for licenses before October’s town meeting, after the MassDOT Surveys are complete.