State Legislators, Transportation Expert, & Boston Residents Warn MBTA Board: Traffic Gridlock from White Stadium Pro Soccer Facility Will Impact T Service

Pro Stadium Proposal for Franklin Park Has Not Undergone State Environmental Review Required for MBTA Involvement in Game Day Transportation Plans

BOSTON —More than a dozen Boston residents, State Senator Nick Collins and State Representative Chynah Tyler, and the author of a report predicting severe traffic gridlock in the neighborhoods surrounding Franklin Park on professional soccer game days all spoke up at the monthly meeting of the MBTA Board of Directors today — warning that the required state review of the White Stadium project’s impact has not occurred, and that traffic gridlock from up to twenty annual professional soccer games in Franklin Park will negatively impact regular MBTA bus service for thousands of passengers.

“I’m here to express my concerns — and that of my constituents — that the MBTA may be unintentionally signing off on a proposal that has had no environmental review up to this point, may violate the Taxpayer Protection Act, and would have significant impacts on the environmental justice community currently served by the number 16 bus, with the proposal to use MBTA assets as well as future bus lanes to accommodate private shuttles for patrons of concerts and soccer games with the proposed plan to redevelop White Stadium at Franklin Park into a soccer and concert venue,” said State Senator Nick Collins, who represents neighborhoods on the east side of Franklin Park. “Under the proposal, close to 100 private bus trips would be required on game or concert days utilizing MBTA properties, including stations, parking lots, and bus lanes. So I'm here today to request that a public process be commenced by the MBTA to examine the environmental impact, compliance with the Taxpayer Protection Act, and environmental justice laws and regulations…as well as a fair market value assessment approved by the Inspector General, to ensure that the MBTA isn't signing off on something that would have a negative impact on the MBTA, its employees, and the people they serve.”

“I live in Nubian Square, and it’s really close to White Stadium. It [already] takes me a long time to get off of my street and get to the main road, or come downtown,” said State Representative Chynah Tyler, who represents neighborhoods on the north side of Franklin Park. “It’s a very highly residential neighborhood…just the volume [of proposed traffic] is of great concern.”

“My review of the White Stadium project’s limited transportations plans found an unworkable plan based on flawed assumptions and wishful thinking,” said professional traffic operations engineer & transportation planner Bill Lyons, Founder, President, and CEO of Fort Hill Companies LLC. “The result will be transportation gridlock that will create unnecessary safety risks for neighborhood residents. The streets around Franklin Park will turn into a parking lot in the hours before professional soccer games and concerts. MBTA buses will be stuck in this traffic, keeping thousands of riders from getting to their destinations on time.”

Nine MBTA bus routes run through or alongside Franklin Park, and are highly likely to be impacted by game-day traffic congestion. They include two of the MBTA's Key Bus Routes with frequent all-day service (the 22 and 28 buses). According to MBTA fare validation data published by Transit Matters, these nine bus routes carry a total of 38,800 daily riders on the average weekday. That means thousands of MBTA riders would be affected by game-day delays to MBTA bus service.

More than a dozen local residents also testified before the MBTA Board of Directors to warn MBTA officials of the impact of game-day traffic congestion on MBTA service, and to address the absence of any state environmental review for the $250+ million White Stadium redevelopment project. Boston Legacy Football Club’s dependence on using MBTA property requires a comprehensive state environmental review before dozens of new bus trips could be regularly introduced to the neighborhoods surrounding Franklin Park.

“The soccer team and city officials still haven’t produced a workable plan to transport 11,000 people on game days, even after tearing down White Stadium. That’s no surprise to the residents who live here, who understand that a public park with limited parking, nearly a mile-long walk uphill from the nearest train station, is no place for a professional sports complex,” said Roxbury resident Pamela “Mela” Bush. “The result will undoubtably be traffic gridlock and massive disruption for the people who live around Franklin Park. Residents will be trapped in their communities and unable to move freely. People will not be able to park within their own community if they do not have a resident sticker, potentially trapping residents in a cycle of parking tickets and growing debt. There’s still plenty of time for all parties to rethink this flawed plan, rebuild White Stadium as a more affordable, fully public facility for BPS kids and the community, and find a different permanent home for the soccer team.”

“The project’s proposed use of MBTA facilities such as T stations, bus loading areas, and bus lanes to transport customers of a private for-profit business is likely to have a negative impact on regular MBTA bus service. The T’s involvement most certainly triggers the requirement for Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) review of the White Stadium project, which has not occurred,” said Lyons. “This state-level environmental review, which every large private development project in Boston normally undergoes, would provide an opportunity for the neutral, fact-based transportation analysis that the public deserves.”

Lyons is a professional traffic operations engineer & transportation planner who has provided professional engineering and planning services to a wide array of public and private sector clients, including state and municipal governments in Massachusetts. He also has served our nation as a now-retired member of the Army Corps of Engineers, full colonel, and is former Director of Traffic and Parking for the City of Somerville. His analysis of the White Stadium pro soccer project’s limited transportation planning documentation last month found that the project’s transportation plans are “riddled with troubling opacity, internal contradictions, and unsupported assumptions and conclusions,” and that “a significant amount of information is either intentionally omitted or inadequately developed.”

Lyons’ analysis found that:

·       The latest “transportation update” released by the City and Boston Legacy at the end of April is not grounded in any scientific findings of any formal traffic study that meets any recognized standard, either by the Boston Transportation Department, MassDOT, or industry standards.

·       No traffic analysis has been conducted since the original proposal for the project, which had significantly different assumptions and estimated trips.

·       Traffic counts used in the latest document were obtained in November, during a time of year not at all comparable to the seasons when the pro soccer season and other public recreation is highest.

·       The project promises shuttles from satellite parking lots, but those sites have not been disclosed.

·       The project expects that 4,400 spectators will arrive by shuttle from remote lots and 2,200 spectators will arrive by shuttle from MBTA stations. This results in more than 2 bus trips per minute for the two hours before the game. With passenger drop-off/pick up, an estimated stop of 5 minutes per bus, that is 10 buses per minute on site. That requires 400 feet of curb space for shuttle buses – a little longer than a football field. Significantly less space is provided for shuttle buses in the plan.

·       The project expects that 1,100 spectators will take a rideshare to the games in the two hours before it starts. This would result in more than 10 Uber/Lyft drop-offs and pick-ups per minute on average, and 16 per minute at peak. With a dwell time of two minutes, that is 32 vehicles per minute requiring curb space or 640 feet of curb space just for rideshare vehicles — nearly two football fields long. The area designated for Uber drop off is significantly smaller than 640 feet. This will cause more havoc on local streets as ride share vehicles drop off and pick up passengers in unintended locations, causing additional vehicle and foot traffic in the neighborhoods around Franklin Park.

MBTA bus routes that run through or alongside Franklin Park, and are highly likely to be impacted by game-day traffic congestion, include:

·       14 (Roslindale Square - Heath Street), 1,000 average weekday ridership

·       16 (Forest Hills Station - Andrew Station or Harbor Point), 6,200 average weekday ridership

·       21 (Ashmont Station - Forest Hills Station), 4,100 average weekday ridership

·       22 (Ashmont Station - Ruggles Station via Talbot Ave) - Key Bus Route, 6,900 average weekday ridership

·       28 (Mattapan Station - Ruggles Station) - Key Bus Route, 11,800 average weekday ridership

·       29 (Mattapan Station - Jackson Square Station), 1,300 average weekday ridership

·       31 (Mattapan Station - Forest Hills Station via Morton Street), 3,500 average weekday ridership

·       44 (Jackson Square Station - Ruggles Station), 2,300 average weekday ridership

·       45 (Franklin Park - Ruggles Station), 1,700 average weekday ridership

Refresher: The Latest on the White Stadium Redevelopment Project

With Boston Legacy Football Club now planning to play their inaugural season at Gillette Stadium, more and more people are calling for reconsideration of the proposal to build a professional sports stadium in Franklin Park. In June, the NAACP Boston Branch called for an immediate halt to the professional soccer stadium plans, and expressed support for a significantly more affordable, fully-public stadium renovation that would meet the needs of BPS students and the community, without the many flaws of the new private soccer stadium. And multiple elected officials, including City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune and several of her Council colleagues, as well as State Representative Chynah Tyler, who represents neighborhoods on the north side of Franklin Park, have spoken out against the private redevelopment proposal.

While the existing high school stadium on the site has been mostly demolished, construction of the new stadium has still not been fully bid or begun, and residents and advocates say there is still plenty of time to reconsider plans to build a massive new professional sports stadium in Franklin Park. Last month, leaked city documents revealed that the cost of the city’s half of the project could reach $172 million under ‘worst-case’ contingencies. Mayor Wu admitted that the project’s taxpayer cost would increase again once elements of the project are fully bid this summer, after already tripling from a $30 million estimate when first announced to $91 million as of last December.

White Stadium sits in the middle of a park, with no parking, surrounded by residential neighborhoods, almost a mile from the nearest train station. Since the proposal by Boston’s new NWSL team Boston Legacy Football Club was announced, questions about game-day transportation planning have gone unanswered, and proponents have released a changing set of transportation plans that fail to address local residents’ concerns about traffic gridlock and disruption. In May, the city official overseeing the White Stadium project admitted that transportation plans are “still a work in progress,” even as the existing high school stadium was being torn down.

Background on the White Stadium Redevelopment Project

Residents of Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and Mattapan have significant concerns about the plan to lease White Stadium to a professional sports team — rather than renovating it as a public stadium for the sole benefit of BPS students and the local community. The City of Boston and Boston Unity Soccer Partners (BUSP) are in the process of demolishing the existing White Stadium in order to build a new, significantly larger for-profit professional sports stadium, entertainment venue, and multiple restaurants and retail shops in its place.

In addition to the legal concerns expressed in an ongoing lawsuit against the project, neighboring residents and park advocates have expressed opposition to the project over issues ranging from increased air, noise and light pollution, increased litter, the removal of 145 mature trees, increased traffic and parking restrictions, and decreased student and community access.

Pro soccer games and other private events would displace BPS students and the community from White Stadium and surrounding parts of Franklin Park on 20 annual game days, 20 practice days, and additional concert and event days - more than half of all weekends during the summer, when residents use the park the most. BPS football teams would be displaced from the stadium entirely during the bulk of their regular season, because the soccer league doesn't want their cleats on the field.

Construction bids for the City’s share of the project were due July 15, but the full cost of the project’s construction is still unclear. While it was initially described by city and team officials as costing as little as $30 million, the project’s cost has since ballooned to over $200 million, with the City and Boston Public Schools responsible for at least $100 million.

Background on the Alternative: a Fully-Public Renovation of White Stadium

Neighbors and parks advocates support an alternative plan to renovate White Stadium as a public high school facility for BPS student-athletes, at a much lower cost to taxpayers and the environment.

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy has proposed such an alternative concept: a high-quality, fully public renovation of White Stadium that would avoid the many negative impacts of building a professional sports venue in the middle of historic Franklin Park. A detailed cost estimate conducted by Vermeulens, Inc. included in the report found that Boston could renovate White Stadium as a high-quality, fully public high school stadium for $28.9 million.

There are numerous examples of high school and even college sports stadiums being built or renovated for similar amounts. Stadium expert Andrew Zimbalist states that “it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Boston taxpayers are subsidizing a professional sports stadium on public recreation land in Franklin Park.”