Belmont Community Path

  History of the BCF land based on Registry of Deeds documents (all documents found are in these folder). The B&M RR declared bankruptcy in 1970 and, as a result, the court ordered it to sell its assets.  John Duddy bought it for $10K (12027394_7_1_1971.pdf). Later, the land passed to Walter Duddy, Trustee of Rebecca Realty Trust, and a Belmont resident who sold it, in 2008, to Atty. Grant Monahon, Belmont resident and head of the BCF (147000_9_4_2008.pdf). B&M still exists as an entity under the umbrella of Panam Railways,  headquartered in N. Billerica. Update: It turns out that, legally, the ROW land taken for the B&M RR should have been returned to the abutters and not sold to Duffy.  So one more bit of law breaking in this story: everyman gets shafted while the wealthy play their games which, in this case, it's the real estate game. B&M: Boston and Maine Railroad; BCF: Belmont Citizen Forum  

The Belmont Community Path project #609204 is currently in Phase 1. This phase consists of  project 1A - a commuter rail underpass and project 1B - a multi-user path aka linear park extending from Brighton Rd to Clark St. The pedestrian underpass was originally envisioned to be 10' wide.  However, in late 2020, Nitsch Engineer Michalak revealed that the underpass had morphed into a gargantuan 1-2 lanes wide tunnel to allow passage of emergency vehicles.   From the moment Nitsch came on the scene, tunnel jacking became the preferred choice over cut-and-cover (dig a hole and cover it) to built this tunnel. What is tunnel jacking? it is using a giant jackhammer or boom to punch a hole through the soil at the pace of no more than 2-3" per punch, according to Michalak.  This process, as you can imagine, takes weeks and there is a likelihood that the jacking will damage neighboring homes' foundations and be deleterious to people's well being.   (To top tha...

   I have been amazed by the escalating value of 101A-B since the park project got under way which, according to CPPC Chair Leino, happened in 2012 .  The park/path will be located within 101A (BCF) and 101B (MBTA) as it runs along Channing Rd.  On the Pleasant St side (west of the train station), the path will make use of 726R (MBTA) which is equivalent to 101B on the Channing side.  There are many things I don’t understand: According to the tax assessor, the land was sold in 1983 for $10,000 but the Registry of Deeds says $1000.  Typo? The land is listed by the tax assessor as being “101A Channing Road” but during the sale to the BCF the address is changed to “Concord Ave” which strikes me as odd.  Also, Roy Epstein, Selectman and member of the CPPC, pointed out to me that the tax assessor should have set the value of the land to $0 instead of  $232K! Interesting things happen to the land values for 2012 and 2013 even taking into account lot siz...

The land in back of our property is split into thin strips.  Starting at our back fence: 101A Channing Rd - owned by Belmont Citizen's Forum aka BCF land.  It is an old B&M  rail bed.  Nitsch pegs it at 25' wide and it consists of a steep embankment and about 15' of level ground. 101B Channing Rd - MBTA owned. It is used by Keolis (MBTA subcontractor) for maintenance of the RR. Commuter rail - MBTA owned. 101C Channing Rd/167 Alexander Ave - MBTA owned.  People look at the level ground by the RR tracks and think (as I did) that that is the land to be used for this park. But they don't realize that there needs to be a 20' buffer between the tracks and the edge of the park which means that the park is squeezed towards our backyards.               Some years ago, I had a committee member (VS) come visit so that we could talk of the impact to abutters of this park.  In his mind's eye, he saw a ~10-12' retaining wall built ...