The topic of the Boston Property surfaced this week in an article written by Thomas Palmer in the business section of the Boston Globe. The article explores a letter written by the Boston Finance Commission Chairman Paul J Minihane suggesting that the City could sell the Mary Cummings property held in trust by Boston that is located in Burlington and Woburn and use the proceeds to develop the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston. The Commission estimates the value of the property to Boston at 30 Million dollars.
It is estimated by the Chairman of the Greenway Conservacancy board that 50 million dollars is needed as an endowment to develop and maintain the properties that were left open by the destruction of the elevated central artery.
This recommendation has come up twice in the past ten years and according to Mayor Menino’s quote if selling the land was that easy, the City would have done it long ago. According to Boston’s corporation counsel Merita Hopkins, there are several big obstacles to overcome in order for the city to sell the property.
Those obstacles could include an approval by the Attorney General as well as a two thirds vote of the state legislature. Other obstacles would certainly be potential opposition in both communities as well as zoning restrictions on the parcel. Right now the property is zoned RO or residential single family and any change to that would require a complete review by both community’s boards and a two thirds vote of the zoning authorities. In Burlington’s case that would be town meeting.
The land in question is 218 acres of which 40 acres are in Woburn and the remainder in Burlington. The property was donated by Mary Cummings in the late 1920’s to be forever held as a public pleasure ground. Boston was named as Trustee because of an ongoing dispute that Mrs. Cummings was having with Woburn and Burlington over local taxation
Over the past 20 years Boston has made little effort to use the property in any way relative to the terms of the trust. As we have reported to you over the past year, the Burlington recreation department had been near to closing an agreement with Boston to utilize some of the property in a way that was compatible with the purpose of the trust. Those discussions and agreement signing was postponed at the eleventh hour.
Burlington’s state representative Charles Murphy is no stranger to the issue has he had contacted the attorney general when he first got elected to the house and requested that he be informed of any efforts to change any component of the trust.
Burlington Town Administrator Robert Mercier was quoted as saying that Burlington would consider development on the property if it makes sense. Mr. Mercier did not specify what type of development might be considered. To date the Board of Selectmen has not articulated any policy that would include any type of commercial development on the site.
Stay tuned on this one. Any effort to break this trust might result in all Hell breaking out!
