{"id":2492,"date":"2020-07-18T12:29:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T16:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/?p=2492"},"modified":"2020-07-18T12:29:12","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T16:29:12","slug":"comment-letter-on-land-grant-application-for-roslindale-wetlands-urban-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/2020\/07\/18\/comment-letter-on-land-grant-application-for-roslindale-wetlands-urban-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"Comment letter on LAND Grant Application for Roslindale Wetlands Urban Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, we sent a short comment letter<\/a> in support of the City of Boston\u2019s application for a “LAND” Grant to support the acquisition of 108 Walter Street in Roslindale for an urban wild. Details about the project can be found from the Roslindale Wetlands Task Force<\/a>; see also this notice concerning a recent public meeting<\/a> on the project from the Boston Conservation Commission. Our full letter<\/a> appears below or can be downloaded as a PDF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

July 14, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

BY ELECTRONIC MAIL ONLY<\/span> (<\/span>Kathleen.theoharides@state.ma.us<\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen A. Theoharides, Secretary
\n<\/span>Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs
\n<\/span>100 Cambridge Street, 9th floor
\n<\/span>Boston, MA 02114<\/span><\/p>\n

RE:<\/span> LAND Grant Application for Roslindale Wetlands Urban Wild<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Secretary Theoharides:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I write on behalf of WalkUP Roslindale to strongly support the City of Boston\u2019s application for a LAND Grant to support the acquisition of 108 Walter Street in Roslindale (the \u201c<\/span>Acquisition Parcel<\/b>\u201d) so that it will become permanently conserved and protected open space as part of the adjacent Roslindale Wetlands Urban Wild. This existing urban wild is a 10\u00bd acre, highly valuable inland water wetland and natural area. The now privately-owned Acquisition Parcel would provide a critical public access point and become a key part of the urban wild\u2019s current walking trail system. Accordingly, acquiring this 37,341 sf parcel is critical. It is now for sale on the private market.\u00a0 The time has come to acquire this key parcel, which Mass Audubon ranked as one of the highest priorities for acquisition and conservation in the 2019 Urban Wild Management Plan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering WalkUP Roslindale\u2019s mission and approach (described in more detail below), we specifically see the\u00a0 effort around the Acquisition Parcel as a win-win as it is coupled closely with the proposed concurrent acquisition for approximately four (4) units of affordable housing at 104 Walter Street, which is also for sale by the same owner and, in contrast to the largely un-buildable Acquisition Parcel, consists principally of buildable upland. This would allow the combined effort to accomplish two important goals simultaneously: (1) expanding the existing urban wild, preserving its functionality, and increasing its access; and (2) providing for badly-needed affordable housing in our city and commonwealth.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the foregoing basis, I wish to reiterate our support for the proposal. Thank you for your consideration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sincerely yours,<\/span><\/p>\n

Robert Orthman<\/span><\/p>\n

Resident @ 31 Mendelssohn Street, #2, Roslindale, on behalf of the WalkUP Roslindale Steering Group
\n<\/span>Ricardo Austrich, Resident @ 843 South Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Lisa Beatman, Resident @ 180 Mount Hope Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Lucy Bullock-Sieger, Resident @ 33 Brookdale Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Benjamin Bruno, Resident @ 27 Colgate Road, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Devin Cole, Resident @ 169 Orange Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Steve Gag, Resident @ 631 South Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Liz Graham-Meredith, Resident @ 6 Crandall Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Rob Guptill, Resident @ 44 Birch Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Margaux Leonard, Resident @ 35 Harding Road, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Sarah Lee, Resident @ 65 Cornell Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Mandana Moshtaghi, Resident @ 12 Arborough Road, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Kathryn Ostrofsky, Resident @ 74 Birch Street, Apt. 2, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Rebecca Phillips, Resident @ 10 Tappan Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Adam Rogoff, Resident @ 28 Ashfield Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Adam Rosi-Kessel, Resident @ 36 Taft Hill Terrace, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Rachele Rosi-Kessel, Resident @ 36 Taft Hill Terrace, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Adam Shutes, Resident @ 318 Metropolitan Avenue, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Laura Smeaton, Resident @ 61 Cornell Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Mark Tedrow, Resident @ 21 Conway Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Marc Theiss, Resident @ 55 Prospect Avenue, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Greg Tobin, Resident @ 1 Sheldon Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Nick Ward, Resident @ 35 Harding Road, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Alan Wright, Resident @ 98 Birch Street, Roslindale
\n<\/span>Rick Yoder, Resident @ 180 Mount Hope Street, Roslindale<\/span><\/p>\n

Copy:<\/span> Nathaniel Thomas, EEA Project Manager (<\/span>Nathaniel.thomas1@state.ma.us<\/span>)
\n<\/span>Christopher Cook, Chief of Environment & Energy, Boston (<\/span>christopher.cook@boston.gov<\/span>)
\n<\/span>Aldo Ghirin, Boston Parks Department (<\/span>aldo.ghirin@boston.gov<\/span>)
\n<\/span>Paul Sutton, Urban Wilds Coordinator, Boston Parks Department (<\/span>paul.sutton@boston.gov<\/span>)
\n<\/span>Ricardo Arroyo, Boston City Councilor, District 5 (<\/span>ricardo.arroyo@boston.gov<\/span>)
\n<\/span>Matt O\u2019Malley, Boston City Councilor, District 6 (<\/span>matthew.omalley@boston.gov<\/span>)
\n<\/span>Nika Elugardo, State Representative, 15th Suffolk District (<\/span>nika.elugardo@mahouse.gov<\/span>)
\n<\/span>Michael Rush, State Senator, Suffolk & Norfolk District (<\/span>mike.rush@masenate.gov<\/span>)
\n<\/span>Kathleen McCabe, Longfellow Area Neighborhood Association (<\/span>mccabek@aol.com<\/span>)
\n<\/span>Jim Taff, Roslindale Wetlands Task Force (<\/span>clave04@earthlink.com<\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

About WalkUP Roslindale<\/b><\/p>\n

WalkUP Roslindale, which takes its name from the international movement to foster \u201c<\/span>Walk<\/span>able Urban <\/span>P<\/span>laces,\u201d is a collaborative group of residents dedicated to making Roslindale the most walkable neighborhood in Boston. We advocate for a dynamic, livable streetscape and we support positive changes to our public and private built environment that strengthen walkability and other forms of active mobility as means toward better personal and<\/span> public health, safety, social capital, economic development, and environmental sustainability.<\/span> We are led by a steering group of about thirty residents and have nearly 1,000 additional supporters. More information about WalkUP Roslindale and our initiatives can be found at <\/span>www.walkuproslindale.org<\/span>. We recognize that no single group of people can be said to speak for our entire neighborhood \u2013 instead, please take these comments as representing the collective support of our steering group members resulting from our mission and principles.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, we sent a short comment letter in support of the City of Boston\u2019s application for a “LAND” Grant to support the acquisition of 108 Walter Street in Roslindale for an urban wild. Details about the project can be found from the Roslindale Wetlands Task Force; see also this notice concerning a recent public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,61],"tags":[166,149,510,81],"class_list":["post-2492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-parks","tag-comment-letters","tag-public-comment","tag-roslindale-wetlands-urban-park","tag-walter-street"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6X5no-Ec","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2496,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492\/revisions\/2496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkuproslindale.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}