Owners of the Charlestown Marina and officials at the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) showed confidence this week that the newest plan to rehabilitate the Pier 6 marina will soon get through state approval hurdles – that coming nearly four years after the plan was filed with the DEP and the Attorney General’s Office, which oversees the former marina’s rehab.
This week, DEP said they have a revised plan in hand, which was filed in November, and are working to finalize the details of the license – a license that will open the gate to develop the marina in the same fashion that Ann and Chuck LaGasse redeveloped Pier 8 several years ago.
“After reviewing the initial license application after the public comment period, MassDEP required changes to the plan to comply with the consent judgement,” said Ed Coletta, spokesman for DEP. “An amended plan was submitted to MassDEP in November. The agency is still reviewing that redesign and working with the applicant to finalize the last details of the license before issuing it. A final decision is expected soon.”
That is good news to Ann and Chuck LaGasse – who took over the blighted and decrepit pier in 2014 after the Attorney General’s Office forcibly took it from Martin Oliner, of New York – will now get to finish the second phase of a project they started at the Charlestown Marina on Pier 8.
“We want to build this project and we want to build the marina and build the HarborWalk and finish this project,” said Ann LaGasse this week. “We have presented a revised plan and we’re waiting to finalize that. It’s disappointing it took this long. We believe in the project and we believe in Pier 6. Things are booming on Pier 8 and we love Charlestown. We are ready to move forward.”
The design had been submitted years ago to the Attorney General and the DEP under a consent decree plan instituted due to the takeover from Oliner. That plan was sent back for revisions last year, and resubmitted by the LaGasses. The plan includes putting 100 slips on Pier 6 in the same fashion as Pier 8 – a project built mostly using Boston Harbor industries. It will also include an expansion of the HarborWalk as well, going up the south side to Pier 5 and wrapping around Pier 6 with a new park space at the end of the pier facing the water. The restaurant on the pier will remain as a tenant. The HarborWalk plan will include new benches, flowers and lighting as well.
Neighborhood leaders, including the Friends of the Charlestown Navy Yard, and even the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) – which controls a good amount of the Navy Yard – have advocated to speed up the process. Both are major supporters of the plan to re-build the marina at Pier 6.
Additionally, the office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) filed a review notice this month to initiate the federal review of the marina project – another positive sign in the process.