ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Building a Blue Allston Summary of the Community Meeting and Forum at the Honan-Allston Public Library, North Allston

October 17, 2005
 

Click to view the powerpoint presentation from the meeting in PDF form.

This fall, Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) held a community meeting to discuss the planning for water, green space and infrastructure redevelopment in North Allston and how Harvard University’s expansion can be an opportunity for urban environmental restoration. Held at the Honan-Allston Public Library, CRWA invited Allston community members to ask questions and comment on the upcoming project. CRWA, a non-profit organization that uses science, advocacy, planning and law to protect, preserve and enhance the Charles River and its surrounding watershed, is leading a three-year Environmentally Sensitive Urban Development Project, part of CRWA’s Blue Cities Initiative, the project is funded by a $50,000 grant from the Boston Foundation.  

Currently, there are three urban redevelopment areas that make up the project: the Harvard Allston campus, the New Charles River Basin, and the Longwood Medical and Academic Area.  The main aim of the project includes creating standardized urban environmental development practices, supporting development that enhances urban environments and identifying sustainable solutions to restore environmental integrity.  The current plans to create the North Allston Harvard campus has established an opportunity to enhance the North Allston community in terms of planning for urban environmental restoration, particularly restoring and sustaining water resources. 

One hundred years ago, North Allston use to be a large saltwater marsh.  These natural tidelands played an important role in buffering flooding and creating an efficient drainage system for the surrounding natural environment.  Because North Allston lies in an area that used to be a marsh, drainage and flooding is a huge problem for the neighborhood. With the development of the North Allston area, the saltwater marsh was filled and existing drainage areas and tributaries were destroyed. While the sub-watershed infrastructure (pipes and outlets to the river) follows the natural contours to a large extent, the contours of these once existing tributaries does not mimic the behavior of the saltwater marsh that use to be there.  This is the cause of the area’s recurring water-related problems.

Many water-related problems occur in North Allston—street flooding, park erosion, polluted discharge into the Charles River, overloading of combined sewer systems, and aggravated flooding over impervious surfaces.  Most of the problems occur during wet weather.  When the sewer system is at 98% capacity, the combined sewer overflows (CSO) are activated, dumping untreated sewage into the Charles River.  All of these problems can be tied to the poor water and sewer infrastructure design.  The present design of the water and sewer infrastructure system does not work in conjunction with the environment.  CRWA is currently working on ways to improve the situation. 

In order to develop this area successfully, a deep understanding of water and land interactions is imperative.  CRWA is proposing regional approaches for water sustainability by working with municipalities, community groups, government officials and developers to replicate the original natural hydrologic design of the North Allston area.  Other goals include: reducing storm water runoff, maximizing groundwater recharge and capturing pollution (bacteria, sediment, nutrients).  CRWA would also like to solve the infrastructural problems by upgrading and separating sewers, reducing inflow and infiltration to sewers, and “daylighting” buried streams.  “Daylighting” involves the creation of streams that once use to occur naturally.  Many of these streams still exist but are simply buried. 

A community in Seattle has done a similar project called the Street Edge Alternative (SEA) that was designed to mimic their surrounding natural landscape.  The project decreased impervious areas by 11%, detained water in swales, planted numerous plants and shrubs, and reduced the total volume of stormwater leaving the street by 98%. This project was heavily based on the participation of the community.  CRWA’s goal is to partner with the community of North Allston and Harvard in the redevelopment of the area in an effort  to achieve environmental sustainability in an urban context.  CRWA will provide support for the North Allston community in terms of science, planning and design of the project.

CRWA has been working closely with Harvard using the Harvard University Master Plan and its North Allston Strategic Plan as a reference.  At the meeting, Kevin McCluskey, director of community relations for Harvard University, stated that Harvard has already addressing many of these issues and are considering implementing many of the CRWA’s strategies into their master plan.