MAPC Hosts 4th Public Forum on Extending Green Line to Mystic Valley Parkway

BOSTON – The fourth in a series of meetings about extending the Green Line to Mystic Valley Parkway will take place on Thursday, June 23 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 51 Winthrop St. 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 Green Line Extension planned for 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 a community visioning process that seeks to examine how a potential station at Mystic Valley Parkway could foster transit-oriented development in the area and minimize negative impacts on surrounding communities.

The first public outreach meeting, held in Medford in February, 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 focused on providing information and answering questions about traffic and parking, air quality, land acquisition, and managing neighborhood change. The third meeting described transit-oriented development from around the region and gathered input from the public on community assets and visual preferences.

This fourth public meeting is focused on engaging residents in creating land use scenarios around the proposed station area, and providing information about the benefits and impacts of each scenario. MAPC staff will also be providing a summary of the input gathered at the last public meeting, which was held on May 17 in Medford.

Staff will also be on hand starting at 6 p.m. on June 23, half an hour before the forum starts, to answer questions and provide background information for anyone new to the visioning process.

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.