Residents at Forest Hills to increase Arborway setback

Criterion Development Partners, developers of The Residences at Forest Hills project announced today that they're working to increase setbacks and buffers along the Arborway by 10' in response to community feedback.

This is welcome news, signaled in newly released renderings.

Residences at Forest Hills proposal threatens Arborway recreational experience

A residential housing development proposed for the LAZ parking lot site on the corner of the Arborway and Washington Street in Forest Hills in its current form threatens the recreational experience of the Arborway portion of the Emerald Necklace by proposing to site one building directly on the verge of the under construction pedestrian and bike paths on the southern side of the Casey Arborway Project - including a six-story building with no setback at all from the sidewalk.

Site plan, with actual Casey Arborway plan

There are no buildings on the western or southern sides of the Emerald Necklace between the Fens and Franklin Park of such mass - with the exception of a proposed hotel on the industrial block along River Street in Brookline - and none with zero setback. These buildings will throw much winter shade over the Emerald Necklace, looming over the soon-to-be-restored recreational paths as the project's own shadow studies show.

Winter shadow studies

There is much to admire about the project's proposed density, architectural cladding and affordable housing allotment in this prime Transit Oriented Development-appropriate site, but in renderings provided in the project's PNF documentation, these under construction paths are depicted as if they are additions to the public good rather than public paths being treated as the front yard of the project.

Building B, with Arborway pedestrian and bike paths in foreground, looking southwest

Building B (left) and Building C (corner of Washington and Arborway) looking south

In my view, the lack of setback for Building B along Frederick Law Olmsted's nationally heralded and locally cherished Emerald Necklace is bad precedent, and a threat to the character of the recreational experience for generations to come - just as that experience is being restored in Forest Hills for the first time in sixty years.

Shade(s) of things to come on the Arborway

Mature 'Princeton' American Elms, representative of Casey plantings (but not to scale)

UPDATE 9/22/16: Some of the first 15 trees planted, view east

UPDATE 9/22/16: Some of the first 15 trees planted, view west

UPDATE 9/22/16: nine trees await planting

MassDOT recently announced that the first plantings in the Casey Arborway project area will begin during the week of September 18, 2016. They intend to plant the first batch of 'Princeton' American Elms in the mainline Arborway median from Shea Circle roughly halfway to Washington Street. These stately trees are the first of 578 to be planted within the project area before work is complete.

The existing Arborway and Jamaicaway trees are an aging monoculture of Red Oaks, all equally susceptible to disease and drought pressures. But MassDOT's landscaping plans for the Casey Arborway, prepared by a team of landscape architects including the consulting staff of Crosby, Schlessinger and Smallridge, HNTB, DCR, as well as George Batchelor and Robbin Bergfors of MassDOT, specify an astounding variety of species and cultivars - and in very large quantities.

Most plants specified are native or drought-resistant varieties known to thrive in urban settings. The overall plan is designed to compliment the neighboring Arnold Arboretum, with trees and plantings arranged in collections that bring the Arboretum's bounty and beauty out into the surrounding community and enhance wildlife habitat in the corridor through a great diversity of plant life.

Three hundred and fifty three deciduous trees will ultimately be planted, including four varieties of maple, two varieties of birch, yellowwood, beech, coffetrees, locust, larch, sweetgum, tulip trees, tupelos, hophornbeams, planetrees, two varieties of oak, stewartia, lindens, elms and zelkovas. Evergreen trees to be planted include holly and arborvitae.

But it is perhaps in the 186 flowering ornamental trees specified for the project where the landscaping will really shine, providing a long-lasting display of springtime delight nearest to abutting homes, three miles of new pedestrian sidewalks and three miles of bike paths. Ornamental tree plans call for five varieties of shad trees, four different redbud varieties, seven different dogwoods, four hawthorn varieties, fringetrees, five different magnolia varieties, four different crabapples, four varieties of cherry and two lilac tree variants.

Many of the 383 shrubs included in the design are flowering varieties as well. Forsythia, hydrangea, juniper, rhododendron and spirea are all on their way to the Casey Arborway.

There will be a huge amount and variety of groundcovers and bulbs too. 16,652 one-gallon bugleweeds, sweet woodruffs, spotted dead nettles and thymes will be planted. 150 Climbing hydrangeas will soften retaining walls. 1,965 daffodil bulbs in five varieties will be harbingers of spring, and there will be 77 irises and 1,120 violets as well. 2,444 Boston ivy vines, and some 6,000 grasses in many varieties (oak sedge, fountain grass, lilyturf, switch grass, saltmeadow cordgrass and little bluestem) are to be planted, with many providing seasonal flowering, color and structure.

After years of contentious debate and years more of disruptive construction, Forest Hills and the Casey Arborway will become one of the true gems of the Emerald Necklace parkway system, a revitalized transit hub for Jamaica Plain, and a beautiful and accessible recreational corridor for Boston connecting Southwest Corridor Park, the Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park.

The first trees being planted soon are only the beginning, shades of things to come on the Casey Arborway.

DCR should update community on Arborway redesign

It has been eleven months since the DCR last updated the community on efforts to address multi-modal safety and access on the Arborway in Jamaica Plain. A public meeting on the project's status is now long overdue. This portion of the Emerald Necklace Parkways is dangerous to all users and after two decades of traffic research, consultant design work and public hearings action is needed to make these roads safe for cyclists, pedestrians and the thousands of cars that use it daily. I encourage all interested parties to write to DCR Commissioner Leo Roy calling for just such a meeting. My own letter follows:

August 31, 2016

Commissioner Leo Roy

Department of Conservation and Recreation

251 Causeway Street, Suite 900

Boston, MA 02114

Dear Commissioner Roy,

I write to declare my support for the DCR's ongoing efforts regarding "Improved Multi-Modal Safety & Access to Emerald Necklace Parks in Jamaica Plain (Arborway)" and to urge the DCR to hold public meetings updating the community on progress towards that goal as soon as possible.

I attended the two kick-off meetings in February 2015 as well as the follow-up meeting in October 2015 which included updates on related efforts regarding the Parkman Drive/Perkins Street Intersection at Jamaica Pond, the Centre Street corridor between the VFW Parkway and the Murray Circle rotary along with the Arborway section between Kelly Circle and the Casey Arborway including Murray Circle. In an effort to inform the surrounding community about these meetings and presentations, I described them fully in a blog I edit called ArborwayMatters available at the following links:

http://arborwaymatters.blogspot.com/2015/02/connecting-casey-bike-paths-to-jamaica.html

http://arborwaymatters.blogspot.com/2015/10/improving-multi-modal-safety-access-to.html

Over the last one hundred years the Emerald Necklace parkway corridor has evolved away from its original Olmsted-era recreational intent and is now, particularly in the study area of the Arborway and vicinity, quite dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists as well as the many vehicles that try to navigate it daily - very often at speeds far in excess of posted limits. Accidents occur regularly in the corridor, some resulting in fatalities. Murray and Kelly Circle are both poorly designed hazards to all users, are located within residential communities, and are vitally in need of improvement.

I was greatly encouraged by the thoughtful and innovative preliminary research and design work conducted by your contractor Toole Design in particular, and impressed by their responsiveness to community feedback in the work they did between the two meetings. I can also attest based on blog traffic to the above summaries and a well-attended Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council meeting last night where the topic was discussed, that Toole's work to date has been well received by many local residents and by drivers, pedestrians and cyclists who look forward to a more rational road network and significant traffic calming on the Arborway.

The community was assured at the October 2015 meeting that a 25% Design Plan for Phase 1 would be presented at a 25% Public Meeting to be held in "Winter/Spring 2016" and that Design Plans and Permitting for Phase 1 would be finalized between "Summer 2016 and Fall 2017" when construction was to begin.

The community eagerly awaits an update on the current state of design and the construction timeline. Thank you for your support of these important endeavors.

Sincerely,

Clayton Harper

CC:

Secretary Matthew Beaton

Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs

100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900

Boston, MA 02114

Steven Kadish

Chief of Staff

Office of the Governor

Massachusetts State House Room 360

Boston, MA 02133

Michael Harris

Director of Governmental Affairs

Department of Conservation and Recreation

251 Causeway Street, Suite 900

Boston, MA 02114

Office of State Representative Jeffrey Sánchez

Massachusetts State House, Room 236

Boston, MA 02133

Projects on the Emerald Necklace

All up and down the Emerald Necklace corridor of parks, from the Fens to Franklin Park, there are projects underway or in the planning stages that will help to preserve, protect, restore and improve access to this vital recreational, pedestrian, cycling and commuting parkway. In partnership with DCR, the City of Boston, Brookline, several green space and neighborhood groups and other sponsoring entities, careful stewardship of Frederick Law Olmsted's legacy will ensure the health of these parks for years to come. The following provides a brief and incomplete summary of many of these projects as well as links to additional information about them. 

You may visit

http://arborwaymatters.blogspot.com/2016/04/may-links.html

for a consolidated list of these resources.

ARBORWAY DCR PARTNERSHIP MATCHING FUNDS PROJECTS -Arborway Coalition

Stone Wall Restoration at Prince and Eliot Streets:

This historic wall has been holding up well, but recently has suffered some damage on the southern end. DCR has been made aware of the issue.

Gateway to theArborway Plan and Implementation:

The old chain-link fence was replaced by a new, lower fence along the Arborway median opposite the Arnold Arboretum. Sections of it have been repaired and relocated in order to improve pedestrian sight lines on the Arborway frontage road, but since that work new damage has occurred that needs to be repaired.

A DCR Partnership Matching Funds Project, the efforts to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety at the Hunnewell Gate crosswalk at the Arboretum are progressing. Expect to see improved signage and crosswalk signals, ladder-style paint and a safer median refuge between the mainline and the frontage road this year.

Annual hillside maintenance and woodlands management by citizen volunteers has resulted in efforts to control invasive species and the planting of many new hickories, redbuds and dogwoods. Many bags of trash were removed by volunteers early this spring.

OTHER INTIATIVES IN THE EMERALD NECKLACE CORRIDOR

A commitment to protect our precious green space includes sustaining the efforts already made previously and supporting new efforts. Some important projects are in the planning stages, some are being designed by architects and engineers, some are under construction, some are awaiting further funding, and some are conceptual gleams in the eyes of dedicated citizens trying to affect positive change in our community through civic engagement.

Casey Arborway Project - MassDOT

Now a little more than a year into what is expected to be a two-year construction process, the Casey Overpass has been demolished and substantial utility work is underway. As the spring and summer progress, we'll see more signs of the new permanent alignment of surface roads, plazas, sidewalks and bike paths, especially east, west and south of the MBTA station. For a detailed look at the demolition and the many positive changes coming to Forest Hills, see the ArborwayMatters blog.

Hazardous Tree Removal on the Parkways – DCR, Olmsted Tree Society, Emerald NecklaceConservancy

Over the winter DCR contractors removed 38 damaged and diseased trees in the corridor identified in a survey of Heritage Trees last year. You may have noticed the small, brass “dog tags” screwed into each mature tree on the sidewalk side about eight feet off the ground. These identify each and every tree in the inventory with detail about their location, size, and health. Though we're all sad to see some of the old trees go, many more new trees are being planted to replace those lost to the allée over the years. With care and maintenance, most will grow strong and tall in years to come. In honor of their 150th year, Ropes & Gray LLP has donated 150 red oaks and two years of their maintenance to the Emerald Necklace. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy’s Olmsted Tree Society in partnership with Boston Parks & Recreation, Brookline Parks and Open Space, and the DCR continue their important efforts to preserve our tree canopy.

Improved Multi-modal Access to Emerald Necklace Parks in Jamaica Plain - DCR

After several public meetings DCR continues work on ambitious plans to improve multi-modal safety and pedestrian and bicycle facilities in three areas of Jamaica Plain: the intersection of Perkins and Parkman Drive near Jamaica Pond, Centre Street between Weld and the Murray Circle Rotary, and the Arborway between the Pond and the Arboretum. These plans have benefited from engaged community input at every step. The challenges here are great but the potential is enormous for local residents, commuters and recreational users alike. ArborwayMatters has detailed the state of these complex plans as presented to the community in October.

Jamaica Pond and Surrounds

In recent years and months, the boardwalk around Ward’s Pond in Olmsted Park has been replaced and Councilor Matt O'Malley has been instrumental in the installation of a new water bottle refill station at Perkins and the Jamaicaway as well as a sunscreen dispenser at the Jamaica Pond Boathouse (a program now being rolled out nationally). Several benches have been replaced around the pond this spring, but as always with this heavily used and well-loved park, upkeep and maintenance are an ongoing challenge. Ssome of the stone walls along Parkman Drive are in need of repair. Efforts continue by Olmsted 2022 and the Friends of Jamaica Pond to protect the green and verdant backdrop of Hellenic Hill from development that would mar the experience of all who love this park.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Crossing at Route 9 and Olmsted Park - Brookline Construction is underway to improve one of the greatest safety hazards to recreational and commuter bicycle use along the Emerald Necklace Corridor – the missing Riverway link between Leverett Pond and River Road at Route 9 in the Broookline Village/Longwood area. Decades of planning and advocacy have created an opportunity for significant enhancement, and the Town of Brookline is moving forward with construction this year.

Muddy River Restoration Project in the Back Bay Fens – Army Corps of Engineers, DCR

The Army Corps of Engineers continues their work to improve flood control, water quality and habitat restoration in the Fens while rehabilitating historic Olmsted landscapes in the Muddy River watershed. Phase One of this extensive project which alleviate flood concern and opens portions of the river long buried in culverts to the sky is nearing completion and will transform the look and appeal of the parkland between Park Drive and Avenue de Louis Pasteur.

Roslindale Arboretum Gateway Path Initiative – WalkUP Roslindale, LivableStreets

With bicycle commuting increasing dramatically in the city and with a transformed Forest Hills on the horizon, WalkUP Roslindale is spearheading a plan for a safe and direct bike link between Roslindale Village and Forest Hills. Other organizations participating include Rozzie Bikes, the Arnold Arboretum and the MBTA. The proposed path begins at the Roslindale Square commuter rail platform, continues on a level grade along the southeastern edge of the Arboretum parallel to the commuter rail tracks before connecting with the Bussey Brook Meadow path and continuing to Forest Hills. Simple, useful and easy to implement, the path could provide lasting benefit to the area.

Allandale Woods

The City of Boston is undertaking trailhead maintenance and improvements in the urban wilds of the Allandale Woods, while the Friends of Allandale Woods remains engaged with developers and the BRA over a proposed residential project at 64 Allandale Street.

Engaged participation, watchful care, diligence and responsible stewardship of our shared public resources are an important part of how these projects come about. Your interest and efforts are greatly appreciated and demonstrably effective.

Thank you for your interest and support,

Sarah Freeman, Arborway Coalition

Gerry Wright, Friends of Jamaica Pond/Community Service Care

Clay Harper, ArborwayMatters

may-links

Along the entire length of Boston's Emerald Necklace corridor - from the Back Bay Fens to Franklin Park - projects are being planned or are underway that will restore Frederick Law Olmsted's linear park landscape and improve recreational and commuter access. This collection of links provides access to meeting presentations, detailed descriptions of projects, advocacy efforts and sources of additional information.

Muddy River Restoration Project
A flood control and habitat restoration effort underway in the Fens by the Army Corps of Engineers
Muddy River Maintenance and Management Oversight Committee
Army Corps of Engineers project site

Emerald Necklace Conservancy
On going advocacy and public/private partnerships throughout the corridor
Emerald Necklace Conservancy
Olmsted Tree Society efforts

Bicycle facilities on the Arborway
A complex series of challenges being met with ambitious plans
Narrative description of project at ArborwayMatters
Public meeting presentation (PDF)
Centre Street reconfiguration from VFW to Murray Circle Rotary (presentation pdf)

Route 9 Crosswalk in Brookline
After years of advocacy, the Town of Brookline has begun construction of a new crosswalk between Leverett Pond and River Street that will fix a dangerous missing link for pedestrians and cyclists using the corridor for recreation and commuting.
Media write-up with maps

Jamaica Pond - Perkins/Parkman intersection improvements
Safety and access enhancements for a notoriously dangerous intersection.

Meeting presentation (PDF)

Arboretum Crosswalk improvements at Hunnewell Gate 
Efforts are underway to improve safety.
Presentation (PDF)

 

Casey Arborway Project
Demolition of the old overpass is complete and construction underway for a newly reconfigured surface grid of roads, bike paths and sidewalks.
Project website with construction look-aheads
Many benefits of the project detailed at ArborwayMatters

Proposed Roslindale Gateway Path 
WalkUP Roslindale and Livable Streets Alliance have proposed a new path between Rozzie Square and Forest Hills along the rail right of way and Aboretum edge. The plan has recieved strong community backing.
WalkUP Roslindale
Meeting presentation with maps (PDF)

Hazardous Tree removal and replanting on the DCR parkways
DCR tree news (pdf)

Olmsted 2022 and Friends of Jamaica Pond
http://www.olmsted2022.org/

Allandale Woods
Friends of Allandale Woods
BRA and Developer material