Letters to the Editor March/April 2021

To the Editor:

Great articles in this issue, as usual. I know there’s an Earth Day cleanup at Lone Tree Hill, but can knowledgeable volunteers help with the removal of invasives and planting of natives that Jeffrey North described?

Art Kreiger

Jeff North responds:

Thank you for your letter, Mr. Kreiger. Watch these pages for future announcements of volunteer days for invasives removal and restorative planting. The stewards of Lone Tree Hill are eager to organize volunteers for pulling garlic mustard and other restoration work as soon as we can safely gather. Look for an initiative following examples such as the Lexington Conservation Stewards’  Stewardship Saturday Program.

To the Editor:

Walking in certain areas of Lone Tree Hill, I have found wintergreen, a low-growing plant. I didn’t see anything in the article about the wintergreen growing in Lone Tree Hill (“Committee Battles Invasives at Lone Tree Hill,” BCF Newsletter, January/February 2021). Will it be affected by the restoring of the native plants at Lone Tree Hill?

Joan Seaver

Jeff North responds:

Thank you for your letter expressing care and concern for the flora at Lone Tree Hill. The planting plan for the restoration area A1 has not been finalized. For the next growing season (maybe the next two), the priority will be to get the invasive plants under control, so only a ground cover planting is intended in the near term. When replanting commences, the Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill will add wintergreen to the planting plan. In the meantime, you might very well find some along the forested area near the Coal Road as wintergreen is a forest plant found near natives like mountain laurel in moist, acidic soils.

To the Editor:

I was pleased to see John Dieckmann’s article about bikeway projects underway in the area (“Bikeway Building Booms Beyond Belmont,” BCF Newsletter, January/February 2021), but I’d like to point out one he missed: the Cochituate Rail Trail, extending from the commuter rail station in downtown Natick to the Saxonville area of Framingham. Construction is now mostly complete.

The Cochituate makes connections previously served only by some of the most bicyclist-unfriendly road infrastructure in the region. The Cochituate has an underpass under the Massachusetts Turnpike, remaining from the abandoned rail line, and there are two impressive new overpasses at Route 30 and Route 9. The Cochituate provides access from the Natick train station and residential areas to Cochituate State Park and the Framingham shopping malls. Bicycling conditions on streets at either end are relatively tame, and the Cochituate provides a useful link for longer bicycle travels.

John S. Allen

Thank you for your letter, Mr. Allen. Watch this newsletter for more articles by John Dieckmann about our region’s bikeways and rail trails. John had to limit the scope of his article due to space constraints. He promises to address this omission in subsequent issues of the BCF Newsletter.

To the Editor:

I read your article in the Belmont Citizens Forum Jan/Feb 2021 Newsletter  (“Building Booms on Belmont’s Border”) with interest. Like many Belmont residents, we experience gridlock traffic at rush hours and wonder about the causes and solutions to this problem.

I noted that your article did not mention the Opportunity Zone that was created in West Cambridge bounded approximately by Linear Park, Route 2, Cedar Street, and the Fitchburg line railroad tracks and can be seen at this link www.mass.gov/service-details/opportunity-zone-map. This Opportunity Zone overlaps with the B Triangle shown on the upper right of the zoning map in your article.

Opportunity Zones are described on the www.mass.gov website as follows:

“The U.S. Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 created the Opportunity Zone Program to provide incentives for investment in low income communities throughout the country. An Opportunity Zone is a designated geographic area, in which individuals can gain favorable tax treatment on their capital gains, by investing those funds (through a privately-created Opportunity Fund) into economic activities in the area.”

The summary is that investors who invest in an Opportunity Zone will have past and future capital gains taxes reduced dramatically. This financial incentive leads to a lot of building in these Opportunity Zones. The good news for towns and cities with Opportunity Zones is that they will get a lot of incoming investment going into areas that have not yet been favored by investors.

A few questions for towns like Cambridge arise: (a) Do these areas in Cambridge need an Opportunity Zone to supercharge investment, and (b) Did Cambridge or surrounding towns like Belmont consider the impact on traffic of the federal action to create this Opportunity Zone?

I look forward to reading more about this topic in future editions of the Belmont Citizens Forum.

Mark Carthy

Town Meeting Member, Precinct 1

The city of Cambridge reports in its 2019 Alewife District Plan that 82% of the traffic at Alewife is generated by “through trips” that begin and end outside Cambridge. We’ll keep talking about traffic —but it looks like we’re going to need regional solutions involving all modes of transportation—the T, commuter rail, buses, bike lanes, and pedestrian access as well as cars—to keep everyone moving.