Critics throng Hanscom hearing

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 11/24/2002

Following a lively, 41/2-hour meeting in Bedford last week on the draft of a Hanscom Field environmental impact study, area selectmen and airport opposition group leaders are now fine-tuning written comments that will be filed with the state environmental affairs office by late Tuesday, when the public comment period ends.

Many of those comments are likely to be critical of the draft if the tenor of last Tuesday evening's public meeting, the 10th and final one, is any indication. Some 800 people filled the Bedford High School auditorium and spilled over into five school meeting rooms and the town library.

The crowd cheered speakers who inveighed against any expansion of Hanscom, citing harmful environmental effects, and shouted down any mention of the Massachusetts Port Authority, the airport's owner-operator. A Boston consulting firm, Rizzo Associates, prepared the draft of the environmental impact study for Massport.

Massport's chief executive officer, Craig P. Coy, was in the audience and listened as more than two dozen speakers, including state legislators, selectmen from the four towns adjoining the airfield, and consultants took the stage.

In a prepared statement Wednesday morning, Coy said the agency ''will continue to conduct an open and exhaustive review of Hanscom Field to balance the interests of the larger public ... Our job is to listen to and accommodate the interests of New England's economy and families.''

At one point Tuesday night, the meeting took on a Hollywood touch, with a 12-minute video presented by Save Our Heritage, a Concord-based historic preservation group. Ten of the group's advisory board members spoke about preserving the Hanscom area as a national historic asset. They included actors Christopher Reeve, Paul Newman, and Ed Begley Jr.

No one who came to offer comment on Massport's draft proposal spoke in favor of it.

After a representative from Rizzo Associates made a presentation on the draft proposal, most of the meeting was taken up by comments from those who oppose commercial aviation, corporate jet activity, and any plans for cargo operations at Hanscom. They claimed the Massport draft was improperly prepared and indequate for protecting historic landmarks and the quality of life in Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln, the four towns surrounding Hanscom.

Opponents also charged that Massport underestimated the impact Hanscom will have in the next decade on air quality, noise levels, and traffic along Route 2A. Coming in for particular criticism were plans for two roundabouts, or traffic circles, at Meriam's Corner and Old Bedford and Lexington Roads, on the edge of the Minute Man National Historical Park.

''Battle Road is sacred,'' Nancy Nelson, superintendent of the national park, told the crowd. ''Massport will not acknowledge any negative impacts or any ways to mitigate impacts. All we want is a fair process.'' Her last comment prompted a standing ovation.

Comments by Gary Clayton, chairman of the Concord Board of Selectmen, and state Representative Jay Kaufman, a Democrat from Lexington, also brought some of the crowd to their feet.

''This is our front yard, backyard, our homes - a place sacred to the history of this country,'' said Clayton. ''We want recognition from the [state] Executive Office of Environmental Affairs [that the region's environment will be protected.] ''.

Kaufman said Hanscom and the four adjoining communities are at a crossroads.

''We want a moratorium on any expansion at Hanscom until an intermodal transportation study can be conducted,'' he said.

The state's environmental affairs office requires an environmental impact study on Hanscom be conducted every five years. The study being worked on now uses 2,000 as a benchmark year for gathering data and will project the effect of Hanscom operations on the environment from 2005 to 2015.

State environmental officials, who will review all the comments made on the draft of the study, can ask Massport to make changes to the draft. They could also approve the draft or instruct Massport to start over again. The environmental affairs office is expected to issue its findings by the end of the year.

Governor-elect Mitt Romney has said he wants to be briefed by Massport on the status of regional transportation plans.

Bedford Selectman Sheldon Moll, chairman of the Hansom Area Towns Committee, said, in submitting its comments this week, the committee will likely focus on ''our disagreements with Massport about noise levels; traffic impacts, which are already intolerable; and the prospects of cargo flights.''

Massport has said noise levels for the period covered by the impact statement will be within tolerable ranges. Massport officials have said that in 2000 people using Hanscom accounted for only 4.3 percent of the rush-hour traffic on Route 2A, which leads to the airfield.

The agency projects there could be as many as 520 cargo operations at the airport in 2005 and 1,560 operations in 2015. Those cargo operations would be .2 percent of all operations in 2005 and half a percent in 2015.

Meanwhile, Anna Winter, executive director of Save Our Heritage, said that the groups' written comments will center on unacceptable noise levels caused by Hanscom aircraft and the effect the noise is having on the ''historical resources'' in the area.

This story ran on page NorthWest1 of the Boston Globe on 11/24/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. ==========
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