Planning group lays out Olympics bid recommendations
Seeing great opportunity in the area's US Olympics bid, a Metro Boston planning group said private dollars should fund a substantial amount of infrastructure upgrades, and the state should protect tenants and the homeless from displacement.
The recommendations from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), expected Tuesday, arrive just after the nonprofit Olympic backer Boston 2024 claimed $14 million in cash and in-kind contributions is "one of the strongest fundraising starts ever for a bid city."
Boston 2024, the group driving Boston's bid to host the Summer Games in nine years, said in January the price tag for the games would be $4.7 billion. No Boston Olympics, which organized to oppose the bid, pegged the cost at $14.3 billion, which includes $5.2 billion in infrastructure improvements.
The MAPC report recommended public dollars be used to fund projects that will have a lasting benefit, while recommending private money chip in for a range of infrastructure expenses. The group also recommended the state establish an Olympic Planning Commission that would coordinate permitting and public input, but would "not supersede" local control.
"A single entity should coordinate the planning and application process for this bewildering set of approvals ̶ and ensure that any proposal submitted to one entity does not contradict proposals submitted to others," said the report written for MAPC by Jessica Robertson and Tim Reardon.
The group recommended establishing a Social Impact Advisory Committee, and said that when Atlanta hosted the games in 1996 there were reports of "price-gouging" by landlords, evictions, and in the lead-up more than 9,000 arrest citations were issued to homeless people, who were also offered free one-way bus tickets out of the county.
"Whether displacement is caused by direct or indirect means, it is an unacceptable outcome, and planning for the Games and associated public policy must be focused on preventing it," the MAPC report said, while also noting the construction of an Olympic village and other aspects of the games could increase the amount of affordable housing available in Boston.
Controls on the size of monthly and annual rent increases may be necessary along with a ban on seasonal surcharges and a prohibition on no-fault evictions a year before the games, the report said. MAPC noted temporary deed restrictions intended to make housing units affordable are set to expire in the coming years.
Boston 2024 CEO Rich Davey has said the only transportation upgrade necessary for hosting the games is the purchase of Red and Orange line cars, which is already funded and in the works.
MAPC identified a number of other projects that it said Boston 2024 should help finance, saying that where projects would "principally" benefit the hosting of the games, the group should pay the "lion's share."
"We haven't quantified exactly what the number is," said MAPC Executive Director Marc Draisen, when asked whether Boston 2024 would be able to afford helping to finance the array of projects promoted in the report. Draisen also said the fundraising report from Boston 2024 - which on Friday reported $2.9 million in fundraising and another nearly $1 million in "in kind" contributions in the first quarter of 2015 ̶ "doesn't have much to say about funds that may be available over the course of the next decade."
MAPC floated the idea of a ferry service on the Charles River and recommended increased access to Widett Circle, the proposed site of the Olympic Stadium. Bounded by highway and rails, the site is currently occupied by train yards and businesses, and while Boston 2024 sees it as the beginning of a boulevard toward South Station, MAPC said additional connections should be made to the nearby neighborhoods of South Boston, the South End and Roxbury.
The planning group also said 2024 should fund bikeways, the purchase of rentable Hubway bike stations and seize the opportunity of hosting the Paralympics to upgrade accessibility of the MBTA.
"Hosting the Paralympics should bring added focus on the moral and legal responsibility to ensure that our public infrastructure serves all members of society," said the report, which said making the T fully accessible would cost $2 billion. Also, the report recommends factoring in climate change when developing the three major portions of Boston 2024's initial bid, which lie on Boston Harbor, near the Fort Point Channel and by the Charles River.
Draisen noted that the properties acquired for the Olympics would be revenue-generating after the games end, and recommended new financing schemes for transportation projects that leverage the increased value of property with improved transportation. That type of financing was used to help fund the first new MBTA subway station in 27 years at Somerville's Assembly Square, and the governor's task force on ways to improve the MBTA recommended greater use of such "value-capture" financing for transit.
MAPC would also like the planned Olympic lanes to be converted into a bus-rapid transit system post-games, which he said would go beyond the Silver Line buses that have some dedicated lanes.
The group said planners "should resist the temptation to scatter venues around the state, which would inevitably defeat the walkable character of the Games," include bike lanes in their plans and fund pedestrian connections between venue sites.
MAPC is governed by a large board of mostly municipal government representatives, and the report is being issued in conjunction with Transportation for Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance.
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