IKEA and Our Mystic River Waterfront:
Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

Op Ed by Wig Zamore
Somerville Journal, Thursday, April 10th

Next Monday, April 14th, is the last day the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will accept public comments on how to improve the proposed Assembly Square IKEA, and lessen its impacts on the public’s right to freely travel to and enjoy our Mystic River waterfront. This final opportunity arises because a small portion of the IKEA site lies on top of filled tidelands in which the public has an interest protected by the state’s Chapter 91 Waterways regulations.

These regulations encourage thoughtful stewardship of the state’s natural resources, including clean air and clean water. They promote public waterfront activities. They also require developments like IKEA, which include filled private tidelands, to provide easy passage to nearby waterfronts and public open spaces, unhampered by conflict with traffic.

Under Chapter 91, three things would improve IKEA and our future river front. First, better design of the new Orange Line T-stop to provide a direct IKEA store connection. Second, a real bike and community path linking East Somerville with the Mystic River. Third, citizen participation in design of the T-stop, the bike path, public open spaces and the river front. These changes would make Assembly Square IKEA more successful and a far better neighbor.

A year and a half ago, a settlement between Federal Realty, IKEA and the Mystic View Task Force ended years of struggle over the development vision for Assembly Square. The settlement commits us all to a more sustainable development pattern than any previously proposed. Included in this new mixed-use vision are a reduction in vehicle trips per day from 100,000 to 50,000, a $15 million contribution to the Orange Line T-stop and a commitment to build a “Bike Path” parallel to Assembly Square Drive, providing needed access to a revitalized Mystic River waterfront.

Since the settlement the developers, the city, Mystic View and the broader community have worked to establish a productive relationship based on an informed public process. We think Federal Realty’s designs are getting better, applaud the labor agreement with IKEA that sprang from East Somerville community advocacy, and look forward to a great new streetscape on Lower Broadway. But key to a better Assembly Square has always been a transportation strategy that minimizes highway traffic and maximizes use of public transit, bike paths and pedestrian travel.

The single T entry and exit or “headhouse” currently planned for the new Orange Line T-stop at Assembly Square would create a long and tortuous route to the IKEA store for shoppers. Yet the southern end of the T-stop nearly abuts the IKEA parcel. Currently there are no plans for a second headhouse at this location, even though it would greatly improve IKEA access for the many Boston-area residents who could come to Assembly Square via the MBTA system. IKEA has made T travel feasible by committing to provide affordable delivery of large customer purchases.

In order to realize traffic reductions consistent with Chapter 91 goals, the T-stop and IKEA project designs must be integrated. The Assembly Square T-stop design should also allow for future direct connections to Draw 7 Park, Somerville’s largest waterfront parcel and our gateway to Boston Harbor and the Harbor Islands National Park.

Chapter 90E of Massachusetts General Laws defines a “Bike Path” as “a route for the exclusive use of bicycles separated by grade or other physical barrier from motor traffic.” In Somerville the paths connecting to the Davis Square T-stop give users transit access and a pleasurable way to recreate and travel about. Current Assembly Square plans include only a “Bike Lane” marked in Assembly Square Drive by a painted line.

Should youths, families and senior citizens from East Somerville have to make their way to the Mystic River waterfront in lanes in the same street that will carry much of IKEA’s weekend car traffic? East Somerville will shoulder most of the environmental burdens associated with Assembly Square development. It deserves more. A real Bike Path is a key feature and “benefit of the bargain” made in the Assembly Square settlement. One can be provided just west of the North-South rail right of way and just east of the IKEA and Federal developments. Anything short of this fails to meet the important public access goals of Chapter 91.

Finally, it is vital that the public be invited to participate in detailed designs of the T-stop, the Bike Path and the future open spaces and Mystic River waterfront at Assembly Square. We do not doubt that the developers and government will agree to this, but it would be nice for DEP’s IKEA Chapter 91 License to recognize the importance of the little guys. All of us.

Wig Zamore is a Somerville resident and Mystic View Task Force member.

HOW TO SUBMIT COMMENTS

Public Comments on the “IKEA Chapter 91 Waterways License Application W08-2267-N” should be addressed to: Alex Strysky, DEP Waterways Regulation Program, One Winter Street, Boston MA 02108. Email: . If you have questions Alex can be reached at 617-292-5616. Comments are due by 4 PM Monday, April 14th.