SALEM — Last night's public meeting on the proposed new commuter rail station and parking garage in Salem had to be a shocking experience for the MBTA. Much of the crowd came to praise the T, not bury it.
"I was kind of blown away," Federal Street activist David Hart said after listening to a presentation on the $31.8 million station, which includes a 553-car parking garage, made by an MBTA consultant, Jonathan McCredie of Fennick McCredie Architecture of Boston. "The (MBTA) team is really focusing on important aspects of the station."
The nearly 100 people who went to Carlton School on a rainy night were, in general, impressed by the improvements in this plan over past ones rolled out by the MBTA.
They liked the raised train platform, which will make getting on and off the train easier; a pedestrian ramp from Bridge Street to the parking garage; a new sidewalk at the main entrance; large glass elevators; an enclosed waiting room; a bike storage area; and the design team's intent to have the garage reflect architectural elements in the downtown.
That's not to say there weren't complaints and concerns.
One of the biggest is the size of the garage. A facility once pegged at 1,000 spaces has dwindled to about half that size.
Salem Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rinus Oosthoek said it looked like the T was building a facility for the 1970s, not the 21st century. He urged them to consider putting another level on the four-floor structure, which he said could generate revenue to help pay off the added costs of construction.
Mayor Kim Driscoll, Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry of Peabody and state Rep. John Keenan of Salem are still lobbying for more parking spaces, according to Driscoll.
"It's a better project with another deck," the mayor said. "How we get there — we don't have an answer for that."
At the same time, Driscoll said she was pleased to have funding and a "real project" that she wants to go forward without delays.
The current schedule calls for construction to begin in the spring of 2013 and to be "substantially completed" and open in September 2014.
There is a large group of local residents lobbying for an enclosed and heated waiting room. They even have their own website: www.salemstation.org. As of right now, there will be a waiting room, but there is no money to heat it.
"Our intent is to most definitely heat that space," said George Doherty, a project manager from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. "How that works we don't know at this time."
A few people complained that, as of right now, there are no plans to have canopy covers over the bus drop-off area or the station platform to shield riders from the rain.
"I'd rather not have a heated room and have a covered platform," Susan Cavalieri of Salem said.
Once again, the T doesn't have canopies in the budget but hopes to find the funds, Doherty said. There are areas to wait for buses inside the garage that are out of the rain, an official said.
One of the factors squeezing the budget is the challenge of building a heavy garage on soft, filled land next to the North River. To do so requires driving piles 60 feet deep into bedrock in order to provide a stable foundation — an expensive proposition.
"Basically, we lost a floor in order to pay for those foundations," Doherty said.
The project is further complicated by the discovery 6 feet underground of remnants from an old roundhouse and turntable from the steam locomotive days.
"We have a strong reason to believe there are structures down below that need to be addressed in a historically sensitive manner," said McCredie, the lead architect on the project.
An archaeological firm will begin digging in April, a T official said, and file a preliminary report in April or May with the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
A meeting to discuss the station design will be held April 9.
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