Brendan McLaughlin, President of the Neponset River Watershed Association, read the following letter at yesterday evening’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen.

Dear Mr. Keohane,

Taber Keally of the Neponset River Watershed Association Board of Directors spoke at your March 4th meeting about the proposal by Milton Falls, LLC to swap land which they presently own along the Neponset for land owned by the Mass Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) downstream.

Over the last several weeks, our Board has been reviewing the proposed land swap, and I am following up to convey our position and respond to several of the points raised in the March 4 presentation by Milton Falls.

Let us begin by saying that the current condition of the site—dominated by dilapidated buildings, inaccessible to the public, and functioning as an attractive nuisance—is unacceptable and needs to be addressed.

The Neponset Watershed Association would like to see the T&H Dam removed and sediment contamination behind the dam remediated as part of the ecological restoration of the lower Neponset River that was endorsed by the Lower Neponset
Community Advisory Committee several years ago. In the short term, we would also like to see installation of a canoe and kayak portage route around the dam.

We believe that the best way to achieve the above goals is for the Commonwealth, the Town of Milton, or a conservation group to own the site. This would allow it to be used for recreational access to the river, enable it to serve as a construction staging area for dam removal and sediment remediation, and possibly allow its use as a location for safely capping and consolidating the problem sediments.

Our preference would be to see the Commonwealth simply purchase the land, subject to the owner demolishing and removing the existing structures. At this time, we are unable to support a swap, and would only be able to support a swap in the future as a last resort, as discussed further below.

DCR has discussed with Milton Falls LLC the possibility of a negotiated purchase of the land. Our understanding is that those discussions broke down over the question of municipal permits and approvals, or lack thereof, and how they would influence
the value of the property. I also understand that Milton Falls presented DCR with a proposal for a land exchange, and that after significant deliberation was advised that there was no support for a swap at a staff-level within DCR.

As with any piece of public land, the protection of the site through a purchase or a swap can only occur at fair market value, as determined by an independent appraisal. That appraised value will hinge on what could be built on the property.

Milton Falls has asserted that they can build 89 units of housing on their current property, based on the zoning change approved by Milton Town Meeting and they propose that the property be appraised on this basis. However, those units could only be built if Milton Falls can also obtain a wetlands permit and get the MBTA to sell them access rights to get under and/or
over the railroad tracks.

A large portion of the Milton Falls property is made up of areas subject to regulation under the Wetlands Protection Act, which could require the project to be substantially reconfigured or scaled back. The impact of the wetland regulations on the development potential of the site is unknown, because the required permit applications are yet to be submitted.

Milton Falls’ largest hurdle is the MBTA. I spoke with Transit Realty last fall, the private company which represents the MBTA on such matters. Transit Realty indicated that a “construction access” agreement had been negotiated with Milton Falls several years ago, but that the fee associated with that agreement was not paid, and so there is presently no agreement. Furthermore, if Milton Falls wanted to reactivate its project, Transit Realty indicated they would need to begin negotiations from scratch and emphasized that it is not clear whether the MBTA would give Milton Falls a new agreement. It also appears that the scope of the now defunct agreement with the MBTA would be too limited to accommodate the project’s ongoing need for both emergency access and regular service access. Milton Falls’ plan to widen the underpass through which most residents would need to access the site was also not included in the defunct MBTA permit. The cost of rebuilding an active MBTA bridge and excavating for an underpass would be extraordinary.

In its discussions with Milton Falls, we understand that DCR was prepared to scope an appraisal assignment once the issues of access over the railroad layout and municipal permitting were clarified.

Milton Falls currently owns a piece of property of uncertain economic value, because all the permits and access rights needed to build have not yet been secured. The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Article 97 Land Disposition Policy lays out recommended procedures to be followed in situations such as these. Milton Falls has not gone through the
recommended procedure for agency review of conservation land disposition, and would now seem to be turning to the Milton Selectmen, and ultimately the legislature, in an attempt to bypass that procedure.

We are anxious to see the Milton Falls property cleaned up and improved, but until Milton Falls can definitively demonstrate that their property has economic and ecological value equal to or greater than the payment they would receive in a purchase, or the parcel they would receive in a swap, cannot be considered a fair transaction.

I would also observe that the Neponset Greenway Council and other constituencies we value are all solidly opposed to the swap and finally, the abutters along Truman Highway in Milton and Hyde Park have been very vocal in their opposition to this project.

With the above in mind, we ask the Milton Board of Selectmen to work with Milton Falls and the DCR to find a way to get the Milton Falls property cleaned up and bring it into public ownership, without bypassing the standard procedure Article 97 land disposition.

Sincerely,

Ian Cooke
Executive Director
cc: Milton Falls LLC