East Boston - Chelsea Creek Action Group
Meeting Minutes -- February 16, 2000

EBOL Public Documents from the East Boston Chelsea Creek Action Group


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East Boston Chelsea Creek Action Group
Meeting Minutes - February 16, 2000

Attending: Lucy Del Muto, Ana Maria Gomez, Anna Lane, Vinny Ieni, Nancei Radicchi, Arthur Cardoza, Stanley Buonaguri, Susan Loucks, Joseph Battersby, Metro Voloshin, Susan Voloshin, Karyl Stoia (Friends of Belle Isle Marsh), Kwabena Kyei-Aboagye (Mass Exec. Office of Environmental Affairs) Jim Hamilton & Scott Darling (Conservation Law Foundation (CLF)), Mike Conley and Stephanie Marrow (Police Station 7), Uma Mirani (Mass Riverways), Aaron Toffler (The Watershed Institute (WSI)), & Stacey Chacker (NOAH).

I. Meeting Minutes: January 19th meeting minutes were accepted.

II. Updates:
- NOAH submitted grant proposal to Mass Environmental Trust for staff time for CCAG work.
- Loitherstein Environmental Engineering will serve as our Licensed Site Professional (LSP)
- Mass Environmental Justice Network is looking for pro-bono LSP to help on Urban Wild
- EB-CCAG took Senator Travaglini and Rep. Petrucelli on tour of Condor Street in February. Anna, Maddy, Vinny, Fran, Joe, Arthur and Stacey led this tour.

III. Hess:
a. East Boston Community Development Corporation (EBCDC) - Lucy,Arthur, Stacey, Jim (CLF) and Aaron (WSI) went to meet with EBCDC. Lucy, Arthur, and Jim reported on meeting:
- EBCDC has been working with Hess for 3 years. First involvement was
over potential contamination of EBCDC's adjacent property from Hess (later
resolved - not Hess' fault).
- Hess is looking to sell the site; recently turned down EBCDC's
$2,000,000 offer.
- EBCDC would like to buy site and build 150-200 units of low/moderate
income housing with rents of $1,000 to $1,400 per unit. Approximately 25%
would be subsidized for low-income. They are currently looking at financing
to see if this would work.
- Idea is to have 2 - 3 acres waterfront open space funded and
maintained by the development.
- If get Hess site, think it would take 2.5 - 3 years to complete.
- EBCDC is working with Cashman on $350,000 low-interest government
loan. Cashman has requested changes to plan - wants to put an office on a
barge, and leave Quanza huts. EBCDC will allow changes if they make
improvements -- new 8-foot fencing and greenery along Condor Street.
- In summary, the meeting was informative and cooperative.

b. What kind of re-development would you like to see at Hess? -
Discussion/exercise led by CLF
- Jim explained that Hess, developers and the City would like to know
what the community would like to see at this site. It helps dialogue. Most
developers know what people DON'T want.

- There are many "stakeholders" - or parties (owner, government
regulators, community, developers, City) which care about site. All can say
what would like, but difficult to resolve without agreement. Community knows
best what will thrive at site, and fit in with the community.

- Ideas of what would like to see at Hess site include: * Marina ; *
Passive park/open space; * Trade school; * Community Center; * Library; *
Housing; * History museum (1st naval battle on Chelsea Creek; 1st Governor
(Brooks) lived in Eagle Hill); * Shopping; * Boat ramp; * Police Station;
* Environmentally sound industry (one that does not demand
trucking); * Indoor wildlife center;
* Restaurants; * Office building; * Height restrictions
(Chapter 91 restricts to below 70 feet - residents want to restrict to 2
stories).

- Ideas of what would NOT like to see at Hess site include: * Parking
lot; * Housing; * Trucks;
* Mass Port related business (unless park); * Warehousing; *
Oil company; * Auto-body shop;
* Anything with environmental damage; * Construction use
(such as Cashman); * Fish company.

- Idea of what would be a consideration at Hess site: * Ship repair
yard with limitations
Regulations and Restrictions that affect Hess site include:
* No trucks above 2 and a half tons; * Chapter 91 - impacts
height can build (not above 70 feet) and use (should be water dependent, but
allows for flexibility if allow public access); * Designated Port Area -
must be marine industrial use; * Massachusetts Environmental Protection Act
(MEPA)
* City restrictions - zoning and Article 80 (Boston's
version of MEPA); * MA. Dept. of Environmental Protection - environmental
regulations and 21e regulations; * Boston Conservation Commission - wetlands
and river protection.

- Need to find intersections of what community wants and what
regulations allow. The following things from the "want list" fits current
regulations: * Naval memorial; * Beach/waterfront access;
* Marina; * Environmentally friendly business; * Boat
ramp/public landing; * Wildlife Center;
* Marine dependent trade school.


- Miscellaneous comments/discussion: * $ to acquire the land is an
issue (Joe suggested and will call Navy to see if they are interested due to
the importance of 1st Naval Battle and victory); * Needs to be an incentive
- opportunity to make a profit for this to work - these would include:
eco-industry, marina and marine repair yard; * EBCDC owned two houses on
Condor Street - there were problems with drugs, crime and trash; * Would ½
park and ½ industry be better than housing and a park? - Participant said
would like to see environmentally sound business with no more than two
stories and open space; * Discussion of negative sentiment around housing -
participants are concerned about: a) density in the neighborhood and the
pressure that additional cars and need for public facilities would put on
neighborhood; b) thinks housing should focus on what is vacant now, and not
build more - need to maintain what we have; and c) Concerned about the
decline in the neighborhood due to trends (e.g. working mothers,
undocumented persons, etc.).

IV. Mapping Project: Aaron brought copy of Chelsea Creek map which shows
hazardous waste sites, different land uses, historic water line (which
impacts Chapter 91 jurisdiction), open spaces (or places that have potential
for open space), and transportation facilities. Suggested that they add
population density to map.

V. Other Sites/Issues:
a. Pending approval, NOAH to advertise Project Coordinator position for
CCAG/Comparative Risk
b. Channel Fish meeting postponed - chose Monday, March 6th as new
date.
c. Logan Commerce Park: Nancei reported that representatives from
different community groups (including EB-CCAG) have been meeting for 8
months. Logan is trying to put in freight forwarding (moving business from
airport to Route 1A). Group has a pro-bono lawyer who has been negotiating
with Logan lawyer. Group's next step is to tell Logan what would like to
see. Pre-hearing Conference Thursday, April 6th , 10 AM at DEP.
d. Suffolk Downs, Ch. 9l -- Senator Travaglini helped defeat adding an
exemption to the Transportation Bond Bill that would allow Suffolk Downs to
be exempt from Chapter 91. Thanks to all of the hard work of East Boston
activists, especially Gail Miller and Lauri Webster who have been leading
the charge on this.



EB-CCAG 2000 meeting schedule
Meet every 3rd Wednesday of month (except April and December). Please note,
we may need to change some of these dates. Next Meeting is March 15, 2000
(if Harborside closed due to snow) - March 22nd)

Future meetings:

March 15th

April 12th

May 17th

June 21st

July 19th

August 16th

September 20th

October 18th

November 15th

December 13th

S. Chacker recorded these minutes to their best recollection. Please call Stacey at 569-0059 ext. 13 to make changes within 30 days.

posted on EBOL on 3/9/00

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