Groups unite for US park preservation
Entity seeks
voice in dealing with Massport
By Kerry Drohan, Globe Staff,
3/4/2001
CONCORD - A new federal ''partnership'' could help resolve the
long-running
development battle between Hanscom Field and Minute Man National
Historical
Park, or it could be another layer of bureacracy, depending on
whose side
you're on.
The National Park Service, the US Department of
Transportation, and the
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation established
the ''Hanscom-Minute
Man National Historical Park Working Group'' Feb. 22 to
promote the
preservation of the park and other historic sites
nearby.
''What we have now is federal commitment to assist in helping to
protect the
national park and other national heritage resources,'' said Nancy
Nelson,
superintendent of Minute Man. ''In the past, we have had difficulty
in
achieving good recognition that there will indeed be impacts to the
national
park with uncontrolled and unplanned expansion of the
airport.''
Massport spokesman Jose Juves criticized the formation of the
group, calling
it ''a slap in the face to New England's regionalization
efforts.'' Massport
has said Hanscom has a role to play in easing pressure at
Logan Airport,
along with Worcester Airport, T.F. Green outside Providence,
and Manchester,
N.H., Airport.
''This runs truly counter to everything
the federal government has been
saying about the delay and capacity crisis
occurring at airports around the
nation,'' Juves said. ''It's yet another
layer of bureaucracy.''
But Juves said Massport will cooperate with the
new group.
''We'll give them the same working relationship and
cooperation we give
everyone,'' he said. ''But this group is not going to
offer any new
information. No matter how many working groups are created, at
the end of
the day, Hanscom is still a public airport.''
Park
officials have been at odds with Massport, which owns Hanscom,
about
increasing commercial air service and its effect on Battle Road,
where
colonists first fought the British on April 19, 1775. The two-lane
road,
owned by the park, intertwines with Route 2-A and is dotted with dozens
of
historic sites. It is the primary airport access road.
''We're
dealing with a little road - Battle Road - that is already
overburdened,
choked with traffic, and all the other roads to the airport
are choked with
traffic,'' Nelson said. ''If there is not planning and real
commitment by
federal, state, and local governments, the inevitable result
will be that we
will lose a key element of America's heritage. It doesn't
have to be that
way.''
Transportation planning is critical to solving the development
debate,
according to federal officials, one reason why the new working
group
includes representatives from the Volpe National Transportation
Systems
Center and the Federal Highway Administration. There have already
been
meetings among those groups, as well as with the Environmental
Protection
Agency and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The working group
will consist of two subgroups - one based in Washington
and the other in
Boston, according to a memorandum of understanding among
the agencies. The
memorandum states, ''The early engagement of state and
local officials and
other stakeholders will be a critical element of this
process.''
That
part is encouraging to local activist groups and the four towns that
surround
Hanscom - Concord, Lexington, Bedford, and Lincoln - who have a
case pending
in Boston's First Circuit Court of Appeals protesting the FAA's
approval of
additional commercial service by Shuttle America. The towns have
complained
that Massport all but ignores them in making Hanscom policy.
''I am
heartened by this development,'' said Peter Enrich, Lexington
selectman and
chairman of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee. ''It reflects
recognition by
some of the key federal players of the very important
historical assets at
stake. Also this is a commitment by the federal
government to bring in state
and local stakeholders to try [to] do some
careful planning about how to
protect their interests while meeting other
transportation needs. It's a very
promising development.''
Druscilla Null, a program analyst for the
Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, based in Washington, expressed
hope that the working group
would be effective in planning, but she said it
was too early to assess its
effect.
''The council and the FAA have
been at odds over what level of environmental
review should apply regarding
Shuttle America's expansion at Hanscom,'' Null
said. ''That issue and other
issues are not going to go away, but we are
hopeful that this group can
transcend the individual issues and serve as a
catalyst for creative
solutions.''
This story ran on page 01 of the Boston Globe's
Northwest Weekly on
3/4/2001.
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