Most Cantabrigians know that the State Department of Transportation (DOT) is planning to extend the Green Line from Lechmere into Somerville. This is good news for our neighbors to the north and the region. We get better public transport, making commuting to jobs and shopping better, while providing traffic, parking, and pollution relief. This will include a branch to Union Square, and a main line through West Medford to Tufts or Route 16 near the Somerville-Medford border. (Why they wouldn't go the last mile is a real puzzler.)

Little of the new construction will take place in Cambridge: less than half a mile of new track. The biggest local change happens at Lechmere Square. We are all familiar with this area as it has been configured since about 1920 with the T station on the point between Cambridge Street and the O’Brien Highway at their convergence. In ten years you won’t recognize the spot.

The extension will follow the existing rail lines running to Lowell and Fitchburg. In East Cambridge, these are on the north (other) side of the O’Brien. Instead of crossing over the highway to Lechmere Station and then back, DOT will take down the present crossing and keep everything on the far side. The argument for keeping the station in its present location was lost before the conversation ever began. The task now is to take the situation and make it work.

A group from the East Cambridge Planning Team has taken the on the job. The Lechmere Square Working Group was formed in the spring of 2009. The group has.scrutinized the DOT plan and developed a comprehensive redevelopment plan for Lechmere Square. Relocating the station means abandoning the 1.6 acre site that the station now occupies and safely getting several million pedestrians across a six lane highway each year.

When the Commonwealth first devised a plan for all this, the situation was very different. The plan to develop NorthPoint was active and driving the process. NorthPoint was to build a deluxe, modern, indoor station and connect it across the highway with an enclosed footbridge to a hotel on the old station land. In exchange for this, they would be given the old station site with whatever development rights Cambridge would allow. At present the NorthPoint partners are in litigation, and few believe that the development is viable.

Currently DOT plans to build a barebones station on MBTA land with pedestrian crossings at grade. The rationale for conveying the Lechmere site to NorthPoint is gone. Rumors persist that the state is still angling to receive this windfall, but it is hard to imagine now.

The Working Group took a hard look at the DOT and Cambridge plans for the area. We saw a minimal station, poor access, and an uninspired development plan with little public benefit. The potential was there, but it hadn’t been looked at from an urban planning perspective. The challenge for the group was to devise the best possible redevelopment plan while not bankrupting the DOT and preserving the development rights that would drive the plan, no small task. With careful thought and considerable design talent, something remarkable came of it. I regret that I can’t show the plans in this forum. The 58 page slide show laying out the DOT/City plans and the group’s improvements doesn’t fit here. There is a link to an earlier version on a previous post. Click here. Then click on the attachment link at the bottom.

Part one deals with station design, pedestrian connections and roadway configuration. Proposed changes would result in a safer, more comfortable and convenient T experience. While important and necessary, the exciting part is what can be done with the land made available by the move.

A triangle between Cambridge Street and the O’Brien Highway divided by First Street where it extends into NorthPoint is what there is to work with. The group crafted a plan that incorporates substantial commercial development, some of it quite bold, into a new Lechmere Square that would anchor the eastern end of the city with a civic plaza, and a year-round public market and a seasonal farmers’ market.

This “transit-oriented” development would complement the Cambridge and First Street business districts, benefit residents, attract shoppers from the region, offset the DOT project cost, and add to the city’s commercial tax revenues.

The plan has met with approval and encouragement from city and state officials, business leaders, residents, and planners. Councillor Toomey will introduce a Council order on March 1 in support of the plan, specifically directing the Community Development Department to work with the community and conduct a feasibility study of the Lechmere Square Market.

Here is the text of Councillor Toomey’s order.

COUNCILLOR TOOMEY 
? WHEREAS: The relocation of Lechmere Station across McGrath Highway, coupled with the uncertainty surrounding the Northpoint Development, will create a void in the East Cambridge neighborhood at the current station site; and ?
? WHEREAS: The City of Cambridge has an opportunity to activate this space in a way that benefits both economic development in East Cambridge and the Cambridge community at large; and ?
? WHEREAS: A Public Market at Lechmere Square would help establish East Cambridge, a gate way to Cambridge, as a destination and help revitalize the area; and ?
? WHEREAS: The City of Cambridge should establish a working plan that can tie the public market concept to the proposed PUD in anticipation of future changes; and ?
? WHEREAS: Economic impacts of a public market in this area should be studied; and ?
? WHEREAS: Zoning changes should be proposed to better solidify the proposal; and ?
? WHEREAS: An over all working plan of the revitalization of this area should be established; now therefore be it ?
? ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to direct the Assistant City Manager of Community Development to work with community groups and to conduct a feasibility study of a Public Market at Lechmere Square and to report back to the City Council

The East Cambridge Planning Team respectfully requests that the City Council pass this order and asks for the support of our fellow Cantabrigians. Please contact your City Councillors to ask them to support this order and come to the meeting if possible.

Update on March 1, 2009. The City Council enacted the above order on a unanimous vote. The measure was co-sponsored by Councillor Cheung.

The author is a board member of the East Cambridge Planning Team and a member of the Lechmere Square Working Group.

Graphics courtesy of Matthew Gordy, OnLand, LLC