Picture yourself relaxing in a lawn chair along Chelsea’s waterfront, listening to the water and watching boats drift by.
GreenRoots is making this vision a reality. The organization will host a planning meeting on Jan. 17 to discuss creating a waterfront park somewhere along Marginal Street.
Directors Roseann Bongiovanni and Maria Belen Power expressed confidence this week that a waterfront park will eventually be built. They believe residents should start now to plan and envision what that space could become.
“We’re confident that something will happen and we want to get ahead of the process,” Bongiovanni said.
Power added, “We specifically want the community to be involved from the beginning and not later on towards the end,”
The meeting will include residents sharing ideas about what they want to see at the site. GreenRoots is also bringing an MIT student intern to present design concepts. This intern works at the Landing Studio, the acclaimed design firm that created the PORT Park on Chelsea’s waterfront.
When the firm learned about GreenRoots’ waterfront park visioning project, they welcomed the opportunity for their student intern to contribute conceptual designs, according to Bongiovanni.
“That student may even have a few conceptual designs to show,” she explained.
The waterfront park idea emerged during GreenRoots’ grand opening at its Marginal Street office, which sits right at the water’s edge.
“Because of our proximity to the water at our office, you could hear the water and see it very prominently that day,” Bongiovanni noted. “People there really started to fee the connection to the water and we took note of that.”
The PORT Park itself demonstrated the potential years ago when it replaced unused oil tanks, restoring an unobstructed waterfront view for the first time in generations. Operated by Eastern Salt, the park has proven successful. Bongiovanni and Power point to it as evidence that industrial marine operations along the Creek can coexist with community spaces.
“Residents want open space and access to the waterfront, and they haven’t had that in decades,” Bongiovanni stated. “We want to make it a normal part of the landscape. Both uses can work together – open space and industrial…We really want to build a more balanced waterfront.”
“The idea that times are changing is important. There can be this co-existence of both, what the industry needs and what the residents want.” Power added.
Power also noted that many residents don’t realize their homes—particularly those on the backside of the hill near Marginal Street—are essentially waterfront properties.
“People don’t realize how close they live to the Creek,” she noted. “They are a stone’s throw and for years they have had all of the problems and none of the access. This is a chance to flip that.”
Beyond the park initiative, Bongiovanni will lead a discussion about Ethanol Trains. A state law protecting the community from them expired this month.
“That law expired at the beginning of January and now we’re figuring out what to do now,” she said. “The state Emergency Management Agency was supposed to do a report and we don’t know if they did it or not. We need to figure out the next steps.”
Years ago, Global Petroleum proposed shipping Ethanol through Chelsea via Commuter Rail lines to its Revere oil terminal. Bongiovanni helped organize strong multi-city opposition, joined by several lawmakers, resulting in legislation that blocked the plan pending further study.
“Global has not indicated reactivation of the rail lines, but they also didn’t tell us the first time they wanted to re-activate them,” she said.