By GAYLA CAWLEY | [email protected] | Boston Herald
Future development plans in Everett hinge on whether the MBTA moves forward with a Silver Line connection to the city, its transportation planner said.
Jay Monty said the addition of near-rapid bus service would provide a “critical” transit link for residents and businesses in two major development areas in Everett, the Commercial Triangle District and Lower Broadway Corridor.
“We’re pleased to see routes that go into downtown Boston and Cambridge,” Monty said. “Today anybody trying to use public transit in Everett relies on public bus service, which is somewhat infrequent and unreliable.”
The Silver Line, he said, includes elements of rapid transit that allow those buses to operate much faster than traditional MBTA buses.
Monty said all seven routes proposed by the MBTA would serve the city’s Commercial Triangle District, which is bounded by Revere Beach Parkway to the north, the City of Chelsea to the east, the MBTA line to the south and Lower Broadway to the west.
Some, but not all, of the routes, he said, would connect to the Lower Broadway Corridor, which includes the Encore casino and a 95-acre ExxonMobil tank farm that “is being sold” and potentially turned into a mixed-use development.
Everett has permitted 5,000 units of housing in those two areas to date, and has plans to double that, Monty said.
“The Silver Line is really critical to our future development plans,” he said. “I think our basis for this project is to support that development in a sustainable way.”
The MBTA said it launched the Silver Line Extension, SL3, from South Station to Chelsea, in 2018. And it is conducting an analysis to study the benefits, feasibility and cost of new SLX route options that would provide “high quality transit” from Chelsea through Everett, and onto Somerville, Cambridge and/or Boston.
Three of the T’s seven proposed routes would connect Chelsea to the Orange Line through the existing SL3 route, and four would link Everett and Chelsea to Kendall or downtown Boston as part of a new SL6 service. The options will be discussed during a public meeting on Dec. 13.
MBTA spokesperson Lisa Battiston said last week that the best way to connect those communities may be through a combination of an SL3 and SL6 option. Final recommendations will be made during a meeting this winter.
“We think it’s very feasible,” Monty said, explaining that the project could be implemented in phases and funded through state and federal money. “It really is a priority for an area that is growing so quickly and that today has such poor transit (access).”
