After two decades of waiting, Salem and Beverly are finally due to get new parking garages near their train stations.
But the projects that have been known for their glacial pace are now on a fast track that critics say will shortchange both communities.
The MBTA says it must build the garages by December 2011 or face penalties from the federal government for failing to create more parking spaces for public transportation.
Due in part to that deadline, the MBTA plans to build garage-only projects in Beverly and Salem, rather than more expansive projects that have been promoted by state and environmental officials as the best use of land near train stations.
"It's really a shame," said Windover Construction president Lee Dellicker, whose company had hoped to partner with the MBTA on the Beverly project. "It's not good for the neighborhood, it's not good for the city. It's not being very well-thought-out. They're reacting, I think, too quickly."
The MBTA has come under similar criticism in Salem, where it plans to build a $45 million garage at the commuter rail station. When residents at a public meeting last month asked officials why nobody is talking about including residential or other development with the garage, MBTA Director of Development Joe Cosgrove cited the 2011 deadline.
"We're really under the gun," he said.
Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll and Beverly Mayor Bill Scanlon have both said they hope to partner with a private company to add further development once the garages are built. Salem could build more parking and possibly offices on the city-owned side of the current parking lot. Beverly is hoping to build condominiums and retail space that would wrap around the outside of its garage.
But Edward Nilsson, a Salem architect who has designed parking garages, said approaching projects in a piecemeal fashion makes it more expensive and restrictive.
As an example, he pointed to the current plans to build the Salem garage with natural ventilation. That would prevent any development from being built close to the garage because it would block the ventilation, he said.
"I don't get the sense that the project is being coordinated in a comprehensive way," Nilsson said. "No one wants to turn down the money (from the state), but they should put everybody in the same room and do a more comprehensive approach.
"This parcel is such an important parcel. We certainly want to see something more than a plain vanilla garage with no private development component. That sort of deadens the streetscape and the pedestrian access."
Too risky
The MBTA had planned to partner with a private developer to build a condos/shops/garage project in Beverly, but the deadline for bidders passed last week without a qualified bidder.
Dellicker, the Windover president, said his company had planned to bid, but the MBTA was asking the private developer to assume too much risk on lease payments and cost overruns.
"We ultimately decided it just wasn't going to work," he said.
Scanlon said the MBTA does not have time to rebid the project because of the 2011 deadline, so it will now seek a company to build just a garage, a more straightforward project without the risk.
The deadline that is creating all the urgency came about as a result of lawsuits filed by the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy organization.
The foundation sued the state for failing to live up to commitments to improve public transportation to offset increased pollution caused by the Big Dig. One of those commitments is building 1,000 new parking spaces at commuter rail stations, which the Salem and Beverly garages will fulfill.
The deadline is now part of state and federal law under the Clean Air Act and cannot be changed, said Rafael Mares, a staff attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation. The state could lose federal transportation money if it fails to meet the deadline.
Mares said the MBTA has had plenty of time to live up to its obligations. If the agency cannot find private partners for the Salem and Beverly projects, he said, it should make sure the garages are designed in a way that would allow further development at a later date.
Hoping for more
Mares said the garage projects are a "unique opportunity" to create places where people can live and work and shop near train stations, allowing them to walk or bike rather than drive.
"While it's important to make parking spaces available, it would be much better if it was part of a whole design that is transit-oriented," Mares said. "It's important to do it right. You don't want to sell the site's potential short."
The mixed-use project that had been planned in Beverly was seen as a key to the revitalization of the area near the train depot. Two years ago, Windover built the Depot Square condominiums, next door to where the garage will be, and has leased out space for two businesses on the first floor.
One of those business owners, Gretchen Driscoll of Balance Training Studio, said she was "stunned" by the news this week that the condos and shops have been dropped from the MBTA's plan.
"As a business owner and as a mom whose family lives downtown, I was really looking forward to another step in having a rebirth of that area," Driscoll said. "I'm still hoping. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that as the economy turns around that they'll move in that direction."
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or pleighton@salemnews.com.
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