Plans for the Green Line's extension to Somerville are currently underway. On Oct. 16, 300-400 Somerville residents participated in a meeting to voice their concerns and preferences about this long-awaited project.
The meeting, sponsored by the state Executive Office of Transportation and the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA), sought to inform the public about plans for the Green Line and to create a forum for them to help shape MEPA's official description of the project.
The city scheduled the meeting after filing the Expanded Environmental Notification Form to gain state approval for the extension. Bob Trane, Somerville Alderman for Ward 7, said that this signifies that the project is finally moving out of its protracted planning phase.
"Basically, we're just stepping off with this project," Trane said. "These are the first baby steps aimed at getting it underway."
Plans currently call for an extension of the Green Line from the Lechmere station that would travel through Somerville. The line would be accompanied by a spur line that would connect to Union Square, an area of Somerville located around the intersection of Washington Street and Somerville Ave.
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) studies of a possible extension of the Green Line northwest into Somerville began to appear as early as 1963. A commitment to the extension was made in 1991 when legislators first approved the Big Dig highway project, which included a number of measures to reduce pollution from the road.
As part of this project, the state promised to have the Green Line extended by Dec. 31, 2011.
One of the 27 initiatives aimed at this goal was the proposed extension of the T's Green Line into Somerville, said Thomas Champion, Executive Director of Communications for the Mayor of Somerville.
"The backstory on this is that the Green Line was one of a number of environmental mitigation initiatives included in the package for the Big Dig," he said. "The idea was that the state would do its best to reduce vehicle trips and the adverse effects caused by vehicle trips."
In recent years, the focus has shifted from roads to the transit component of the greater Big Dig package, Champion said.
The most optimistic estimate is that the new stops will be open to the public in 2011, although the state has requested a deadline extension to 2014.
"These are state obligations," Champion said. "It's really a question of the state, as they complete the main project, to go back to the other commitments they made."
Citizens have rallied behind the project, decrying the isolation of Somerville areas that are not close enough to the T.
Former resident David R. Wood, who recently moved out of Union Square because of the inconvenience, said that connecting the area to the T would be a boon to the region.
"I think it would make it a lot more attractive for folks to move in," he said. "It would definitely improve the dynamic. [There] would be a lot more of a demand for goods and services in that area."
Champion said that, convenience aside, the extension would foster economic growth and Somerville's extension as a cultural center. He pointed to the blossoming of Davis Square after the addition of the T stop.
"What's become clearer to state and local planners [is] that economic development on the scale and density to succeed in a major urban area usually requires a transit component," Champion said.
Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone said that, especially given Somerville's high population density, its residents are eager for the mobility and general prosperity they feel goes hand in hand with greater proximity to public transportation.
"I think the benefits speak for themselves," he said. "People want to live in the urban core. All urban cities have major transits; it's a function of quality of life."
The increasing distance between the project's approval and its realization has been a source of frustration to its supporters in Somerville.
John Carlisle, the press secretary for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation, said that a long waiting period is often characteristic of such a large-scale endeavor, especially when it comes to clearing the hurdles of state approval.
"With large projects like this, from conception to construction, it's not unusual for it take a long periods of time, particularly when it impacts neighborhoods," he said.
Despite these roadblocks, Curtatone said the state government has seen the citizens' determination for the project's completion.
"I think there's overwhelming support," he said. "You can see from past meetings, as well as this one, that there's unified support to bring transit to Somerville."
