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Westwood Station to Receive up to $55 Million

by Dave Atkins

According to an article in the Boston Globe, the Patrick administration will inject up to $55 million in infrastructure funds to jumpstart the Westwood Station development.  The Boston Herald published a copy of the letter from Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Bialecki to Cabot, Cabot and Forbes developer Jay Doherty in which Bialecki also urges CC&F to re-apply for I-Cubed funding to cover approximately $6 million in costs associated with building Westwood Station Boulevard and the University St/Canton Street interchange.

The I-Cubed funding was particularly controversial in Westwood last year because it would require a commitment from the Town to guarantee the loans--if the project failed to generate the projected tax revenues to the state that justify the I-Cubed financing, the Town would be required to pay the difference. A Town Meeting article to authorize the Town's participation was withdrawn given the uncertainty of the project at that time--when the funding requested approached $50 million.

The promise of funding is conditioned on a number of factors--including a commitment from CC&F to begin construction on 400,000 square feet of space during the 2010 construction season.

In an unrelated development this week, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Canton that had also threatened to block the project.

So it appears to be "game on" again for Westwood Station. The news stories did not mention whether the I-Cubed funding element would require action by Town Meeting, but I expect the agenda this Spring will be quite full...

Submitted by Dave Atkins on January 22, 2010 - 12:19am
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Comments

Meeting on Westwood Station Traffic Mitigation March 10

Submitted by Dick Bean on March 3, 2010 - 8:52pm.

I received an email indicating there would be a traffic mitigation meeting on Wednesday, March 10 at 7:30 PM at a location to be determined. 

It has been a long time since the September 2008 meeting at the Downey School in which we all discussed various traffic mitigation steps. 

We had a subsequent meeting last year at the high school which held out hope of progress. 

Let's hope the March 10 meeting will bring some action.  

 

Traffic Mitigation meeting

Submitted by AS on March 4, 2010 - 7:39pm.

Does it say who is sponsoring the meeting? Does anyone have an update on Westwood Station?

the town of Westwood must be sponsoring the meeting?

Submitted by Dick Bean on March 4, 2010 - 8:02pm.

One email I received was from Chris McKeown, who is the town's project manager for Westwood Station (I hope that is his title, sorry if I have it wrong).  So, I have to assume that the town of Westwood is sponsoring the meeting. 

Engineering Firm

Submitted by Dave Atkins on March 4, 2010 - 9:00pm.

I talked to Chris McKeown today and exchanged emails with Najib Habesch who was the engineering consultant who presented at the Downey School meeting in November 2008. (search this site for more articles here showing the background on this)

The meeting will be held on March 10, 2010 at 7:30 PM at the High School Professional Development Room. The engineer/consultant and town have been working to address the objections cited by the Norfolk County Commissioners when they denied Westwood's petition to allow the roadway changes. The purpose of the meeting next week is to update the Advisory group--comprised principally of residents of the Canton-Everett-Forbes area--before providing a general, public update.