Advocates opposed to the city of Boston’s plan to redevelop Franklin Park’s White Stadium into the new home of a professional women’s soccer team are pushing for a state review over the plan’s legality, in a last-ditch effort to stop the project.
The Garrison Trotter Association and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, which sued the city and Boston Unity Soccer Partners over its alleged “unconstitutional privatization” of the land — a claim of illegality the city has denied — sent a letter Wednesday to the heads of key state agencies, saying that the city has failed to comply with a number of other legal permitting obligations involving state review.
The advocates’ letter comes as the White Stadium renovation project is scheduled for final approval by the Boston Parks Commission on Monday, with demolition, per the mayor’s office, set to begin in the fall. The court previously threw out an injunction sought by Emerald Necklace Conservancy and a group of private citizens seeking to stall the project, but the case is still “ongoing.”
“This letter will not repeat the basis for that active lawsuit, but will focus on the separate specific failures of the proposed project to comply with statutes and regulations that require state permitting and approvals, MEPA review, MHC review and consultations and other state-level processes and reviews not yet sought or performed,” the advocates wrote.
The mayor’s office hit back at the claims made in the letter on Friday, saying that the court has already ruled that they are without merit.
“As the court already ruled, there is no merit to the claim of state jurisdiction over this project,” a spokesperson for Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement.
“We are excited about the public support for this generational investment in our Boston Public Schools students and the surrounding community, and are grateful for the many neighborhood voices that have helped improve every aspect of the design and planning as we approach the final steps in the permitting process.”
The mayor’s office said the court’s ruling to throw out the preliminary injunction indicated that the project is not subject to state review under Article 97 of state law, which requires MEPA or Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office, review of developed parkland.
White Stadium has been a Boston Public Schools facility since construction was completed in 1949 and state law defined in 1950 that White Stadium will be managed as a school property and not parkland, the mayor’s office said.
Karen Mauney-Brodek, president of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, disagreed.
“State environmental regulations are entirely separate from the ongoing lawsuit over Franklin Park’s protected status,” Mauney-Brodek said in a statement. “There is no question that a state environmental review is required for an 11,000-seat sports and entertainment complex in the middle of an historic park, surrounded by the environmental justice residential communities of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and Jamaica Plain.
“Our letter is simply calling on the appropriate state agencies to step in before any damage can be done.”
Louis Elisa, president of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association, said the advocates are simply seeking a review of factors that should have been considered from the beginning, and are optimistic that they can stop the demolition plans.
“Eleven-thousand people coming in, whether they’re coming directly or indirectly, are going to have an impact on the road, they’re going to have an impact on the air quality, but they’re really going to have an impact on environmental justice,” Elisa told the Herald.
The “only bright light” in the city approval process thus far, Elisa said, has been when the Parks Commission opted to delay a vote on the project’s demolition plan.
“My understanding is they’re going to gather again Monday from the last meeting, and they’re going to go over whether or not the idea works,” Elisa said. “But I think no intelligent person who understands landmarks, who understands antiquities, understands history and understands recreation will agree that what’s being proposed now, without further and more comprehensive information is a benefit to the community.”
Monday’s vote on the demolition plan follows the Parks Commission’s prior vote to approve the design concept for the renovation, as well as approvals from the Landmarks Commission, the Boston Civic Design Commission, and the Boston Planning and Development Agency Board, the mayor’s office said.
Neither the city nor Boston Unity Soccer Partners will begin demolition until a lease has been signed, which is in the process of being finalized, the mayor’s office said. The city and BUSP will contribute $50 million apiece to the project.
The mayor’s office on Friday shared a letter from a separate group of advocates, the Franklin Park Coalition, which expressed “support for the Parks Commission’s pending voting to approve the demolition plan so the project can move forward.”
“White Stadium is a deteriorating blight in Franklin Park and considerably underutilized due to its condition,” Rickie Thompson, president of the Franklin Park Coalition Board of Directors, wrote. “Our hope is that restoration of White Stadium will bring investment to Franklin Park and elevate the importance of the park, Olmsted’s Crown Jewel of the Emerald Necklace, throughout the region.”
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