Belmont Community Path

  At the June 7th TM and at the two CPPC meetings afterwards, I have heard people have been referring to the MBTA's "desires" instead of its well-thought out requests for safety's sake; and people have accused it of being greedy for more space and of it wanting to force the town into land takings. CPPC members have talked of the MBTA as an "obstacle" to be removed to allow the town to pursue its goals.   In order to remove the "obstacle", the town counts on Senator Brownsberger  and the Senator has vowed to recruit Governor Baker to do so  (Brownsberger does not have the authority to make the MBTA accept the town's  "French" plan but Governor Baker does).  So what I have been witnessing seems to be the casting of the MBTA in the villain's role and a determination to bend it to the town's will despite the MBTA's valid concerns. It all sounds awfully familiar because we abutters have been subjected to the same treatment: sto...

 It seems that people just want to believe what makes them comfortable and suits their wishes or desires.  So, according to Wicked Local , Mr. French was poised to lose a 2' wide strip of land along his property.  While the fact is that the Nitsch plan stripped him of land along his driveway AND also of a large chunk of land on the west side of the building.  As Selectman Paolillo put it, Frank French was set to lose 3-4,000 sq. ft of land. At the June 7th TM, a TMM claimed that the BCP would increase the abutters' property value.  This is a blanket statement with little validity.  The reality is that universities' (as opposed to real estate groups) studies have shown that abutting properties lose between 6-7% and up to 20% of their value.  The properties that gain value are those in the surrounding area but not abutting.  It is a common belief - seemingly fostered by the town - that that the BCP will be built in what is actually the MBTA's ROW....

(Scroll down for two videos containing audio clips.) At the June 7th TM, Selectman Epstein stated that Clancy informed him by email that the MBTA's minimum clearance* requirement between rail and BCP was 14' (Jody Ray communicated this at a March 16, 2021 MBTA -Nitsch meeting).  But that was before the French Amendment threw the town into a tizzy. *The clearances are based primarily on: need for a 9' minimum to replace railroad ties; 14' minimum for track maintenance. The latter clearance allows for both doors on a pickup truck to be opened simultaneously without having one of the doors clipped by a passing train (personal communication from MBTA official). Mr. French, acting as TMM, filed an amendment to remove from Article 12 the funds needed for the town to strip him of 3K-4K sq. ft. of his land at 40 Brighton Rd. The town countered - acting via Clancy - by requesting from the Nitsch engineers a 25% design change so that the BCP would not stray into French's lan...

  At the Town Meeting this June 7th , we heard an extraordinary exchange between Senator Will Brownsberger and Selectman Epstein (starts at 1:56:48 with Epstein talking).  Below I have a partial transcript of the exchange and a movie with the audio clip.  For almost one year, Nitsch has published BCP 25% design plan that required the taking of 3000-4000 square feet of land (per Selectman Paolillo, TM June 7,2021) from Frank French at 40 Brighton Rd.   The town has taken the first step for seizing land (permanently or temporarily) from Mr. French and at least 40 other abutters (read the CPPC's CPA application).    Mr. French has complained that the taking would heavily impact his business but his complaints have fallen on deaf ears.   As a result, Mr. French hired attorney George McLaughlin and suddenly, in the last week or so. the town hears him.  As a result,  Nitsch has produced a new plan - unveiled last Friday - that now p...

MPO The Board voted for the TIP 2022-26 hence BCP has no hope of inclusion until 2026 or later.  Two public comments received from Belmont: Friends of BCP and Belmont School Committee. Goentzel and Bowen attended. TIP Project Cost Ad Hoc Committee As I have been mentioning, the MPO is upset about budget woes brought about by project estimate increases and cost overruns.   To deal with these issues, the MPO formed this Ad Hoc Comm. to come up with recommendations. Today was the first meeting.  An entertaining few minutes were brought about by Bowen who asked Chairman Bourassa to address the “misinformation”, “this notion floating around the town” that cost overruns would become the town’s burden.  To my delight, Mr. Bourassa told her that that was precisely one of topics for discussion.  Perhaps the news that indeed the town may be on the hook for part of the project’s construction budget may be what brought Friedman to the meeting soon after. Mr. Kane point...

  A great part of the meeting dealt with crisis management or what Stanton referred to as the "political stage". 1. Problem: Selectman Epstein.     Epstein has changed his position regarding the CPA appropriation.  At the 5/25/21 BOS meeting, Epstein stated that he did not know that more land would be taken from French-Mahoney ,in addition to the DCR easement.  The BOS voted again on the CPA appropriation and, this time, Epstein voted against it while Dash and Paolillo voted for it.   Leino said that it was “disingenuous" for Epstein to say he did not know. Lawrence agreed and that it was ”not representative of a SB member”. Stanton: "SB member Epstein puts himself in the shoes of other parties rather than representing interests of the town." 2.  Problem: French’s Amendment. The amendment calls for the $200K for appraisals to be removed from the CPA appropriations.  Leino said that the amendment was a “blunt force instrument” by French. He did cl...

    YouTube Video of meeting. Joint P4/P8 information meeting was held last night in preparation for Wed.’s TM.  Article 12 (CPA $200K for BCP eminent domain appraisals) was presented by Leino (starts ~45’ in) and discussed. Thanks to Allison Lenk and Steven Rosales who insistently questioned Leino and also thanks to Lisa Pargoli for speaking up.   Leino presented the CPA’s $200K appraisal request.  There was misinformation galore in his presentation.  I don’t have time to deal with all of the misinformation but here’s some fact checking. 1. Leino said workers only need to “walk” through our properties although at another point a slide shows workers and “equipment”.  Whenever the subject of temp. easements comes up, Leino talks about workers “traversing” our properties and I mentally see a tidy line of workers with shovel at their shoulder tip-toeing by my windows.   The reality is that the "traversing" will be done in trucks and that a port...