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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