Extremely thankful
To the Editor:
The Harvard-Kent Elementary School students, families and parents’ association are extremely thankful and grateful to the Bunker Hill Associates for their generous donation to the after school program. The grant the parents’ association received allowed us to provide at no cost seven weeks of twice weekly Knucklebones to over 80 Charlestown students in Grades K1-5. A welcome activity for all during the long winter months.
We cannot thank you enough for your contributions back to the Charlestown Community.
The Harvard-Kent Parents Association
We are taking the community’s feedback seriously
To the Editor:
We are writing in response to the article “CNC Calls for Respect from City Leaders; Needs Interest from the Community” published on April 5.
We appreciate all of the community interest in the future of the Little Mystic Parcel and want to provide some additional clarification on the process and the next steps.
In advance of the Boston Planning & Development Agency’s (BPDA) lease with MassPort for the Little Mystic Channel parcel expiring this year, we have launched a community engagement process to hear from both Charlestown neighbors and businesses on how the site can be best used in the future.
Since the parcel is located within a Designated Port Area (DPA), state law requires that only marine industrial uses be allowed at this site. The BPDA supports the State’s DPA designation as this law ensures that certain parts of Boston Harbor remain accessible to Boston’s maritime economy and keeps important jobs in our City.
While we are considering a renewal of the lease to MassPort (which subleases the property to the Boston AutoPort) we will only proceed with this course of action if it creates substantial benefits for both Charlestown and for Boston. At a minimum, a lease renewal would need to include mitigation benefits to the Charlestown community. These benefits could involve improvements at this site itself, or public benefits created at other places in our community.
At a recent community meeting on March 21 at the Charles Newtown Co-op, we were pleased to see a diverse group of residents take an active role in the public process. To ensure that all members of the Charlestown community were included, we hired a Cantonese translator for live translation of the meeting and to translate the materials we posted online.
The BPDA presented the facts about the location but we also invited outside stakeholders to share important viewpoints with the community. We invited the Mystic River Watershed Association to present as they have been engaging the community around measures to create public open space along the Mystic River – including the Little Mystic area where this property is located. We also invited MassPort and AutoPort to present to share their viewpoints on the nearly 500 jobs their uses of the site support.
The BPDA is committed to continuing a public dialogue before we make any decisions. We are taking the community’s feedback seriously and look forward to working with local stakeholders to best determine the future of this parcel. There are several ways to get involved:
•Submit your questions, comments and ideas for the Little Mystic parcel via our website. All submissions are received and reviewed by members of the Little Mystic Site Mitigation Planning Team. Please note the comment period for this project ends on Friday, May 3 at 5 p.m. EST.
•Contact the Little Mystic Site Planning Team directly by emailing Reay Pannesi at [email protected].
•At the conclusion of this comment period we will also host a second community workshop to discuss the comments we have received and create a plan for future actions. More details on the date and location of this meeting will be forthcoming.
Brian GoldenBoston Planning and Development Agency, Director
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