(The following article by Mac Daniel was pusblished by the Boston Globe on May 9.)
BOSTON — The MBTA will drop its attempt to take land by eminent domain from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority in exchange for several key concessions that will ensure rail access through 91 acres the authority wants to sell to Harvard University, according to a tentative agreement.
Reached late yesterday afternoon after a day and a half of negotiations, the agreement would protect a rail yard on Allston land that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority considers vital for a future commuter train layover facility. The pact would also allow the Turnpike Authority to move ahead with the $75 million land sale to Harvard, which wants the property as part of its expansion in Allston. Lawyers for Harvard and the two state transportation authorities will review the tentative agreement over the next few days, officials said.
Brokered by Senator Steven Baddour, a Methuen Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee, the deal would transfer permanent rail easements from private freight carrier CSX to the MBTA at no cost.
The deal would also protect the MBTA’s current operations. The T’s Worcester-Framingham commuter rail line runs through a portion of the Allston yard, and MBTA trains from Boston’s south side use another portion of the yard to go to the agency’s Somerville repair facility.
In addition, should portions of the 91 acres be developed by Harvard, the agreement allows the MBTA to pick up a second permanent main-line track easement, as well as 20,000 additional feet of storage using track either inside or adjacent to land the authority owns that is next to the Allston property, MBTA general manager Michael Mulhern said.
MBTA officials, who had long eyed the rail yard as a potential storage facility for commuter rail, worried that it would lose access to the site if the sale went through and the land was developed.
In addition, the tentative agreement calls for Harvard University to spend $1 million looking at transportation improvements that could be made on the property, including extending a freight rail line directly to the port of Boston.
Under this agreement, ”we’re going to create a development that serves the interests of everyone involved,” Mulhern said.
Last Friday, to retain control of the rail yard and because they believed the deal was being fast tracked, MBTA officials said they would invoke eminent domain powers and pay the Turnpike Authority $33.25 million for 47 acres.
MBTA officials, Transportation Secretary Daniel Grabauskas, Massachusetts Port Authority chief Craig P. Coy, and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino opposed the sale of the land to Harvard, arguing that the city could lose a vital transportation link.
Earlier this week, state environmental officials called on turnpike officials to halt the pending land sale until they decided whether the deal should face a strict review.
Baddour, in only his fourth month as chairman of the Transportation Committee, said the parties involved will now work out details. He said he called for yesterday’s sit-down to ensure ”that the public interest was first and foremost in everyone’s eyes.”
The parties had been meeting via conference call or face to face since Wednesday afternoon, he said, adding that he was confident the deal would not fall apart.
Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello said the deal ensured that public transportation ”is and will be protected for as long as the MBTA wants to run rail service west.”
”This is all very positive,” he said.
Said Grabauskas: ”I have no reason to believe that this agreement won’t find its way into black and white.”
The invocation of eminent domain powers represented a rare instance of one state transportation authority trying to take land from another. Amorello had set today as the date he would make a decision on moving ahead with the sale to Harvard, despite the MBTA’s eminent domain action.