MAPC HOSTS THIRD PUBLIC FORUM ON EXTENDING GREEN LINE TO MYSTIC VALLEY PARKWAY

Meeting to focus on community assets, opportunities

BOSTON – The third in a series of meetings about extending the Green Line to Mystic Valley Parkway will take place on Tuesday, May 17 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Cabot Auditorium at 160 Packard Ave. in Medford.

The meeting is part of a visioning process, funded by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), examining the effects of a potential Mystic Valley Parkway station on the planned Green Line Extension to Somerville and Medford.

The meeting will be hosted by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), which is the regional planning agency for Metropolitan Boston. MAPC is leading the community visioning process which seeks to examine how a potential future station at Mystic Valley Parkway could foster transit-oriented development in the area and minimize negative impacts for surrounding communities.

The first public outreach meeting, held on Feb. 16 in Medford, introduced the visioning process to the public, described the scope and timeline for the process, and included an hour-long small group dialogue to capture the key concerns and ideas of those who attended. The second meeting, building upon the key issues heard in the first meeting, focused on providing information and answering questions on the topics of traffic and parking, air quality, land acquisition, and managing neighborhood change.

This third public meeting is focused on engaging residents in a discussion about community assets and opportunities around a potential station at Mystic Valley Parkway. MAPC staff will be providing background information on transit-oriented development and asking residents to participate in a preference survey which will help guide recommendations for future development around the potential station. This is the third of five planned public meetings as part of the yearlong visioning process.

Additional public meetings will be scheduled throughout this year, with the goal of gathering community input on the benefits and impacts of extending the Green Line to Mystic Valley Parkway. MAPC and MassDOT have included the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration, based at UMass Boston, in this community visioning effort to help facilitate a strong public engagement process.

For more information, please visit http://www.mapc.org/ and www.mass.gov/greenlineextension.