Following a month-long halt, construction to redesign the deteriorated Linear Park in Cambridge will continue after a judge ruled against a group of residents.
In a decision Friday, Middlesex Superior Court Justice Sarah Weyland Ellis declined to issue a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order to stop the city’s redesign and construction of Linear Park, a half-mile green corridor connecting the MBTA Alewife station and the Somerville border.
The decision, which notes the North Cambridge park is zoned as Open Space, rules that halting the project further would “negatively impact the public by delaying the installation of vital safety improvements and amenities.”
“We look forward to moving forward with plans to enhance the park and more effectively support the needs and interests of our community,” said Jeremy Warnick, a spokesperson for the City of Cambridge.
“The goal of the project is to renovate this well-loved park and create a cohesive open space that provides increased access for the community and improved opportunities for passive recreation and leisure, play, enjoyment of the landscape, and a welcoming path for people to walk and bike,” Warnick said.
Construction was supposed to begin in early September to widen the path, replace old light poles, plant more than 100 new healthy trees, and make other upgrades, per a city’s redesign plan. The park was created when the Red Line was extended past Harvard to Alewife, nearly 40 years ago. Now, the city wants to reinforce the space for both walkers and parkgoers, as well as bike riders and other commuters.
Construction will begin after the city confirms an updated schedule with the contractor, Warnick said, and the city “will make every effort to temporarily reopen the path once the base layer of pavement has been installed.”
Teague: Project will kill over 120 mature trees
A judge initially paused the construction last month after the neighbors, led by Charles Teague, filed a lawsuit against the city to stop what he claimed would kill over 120 mature trees. The city claims no healthy trees will be removed under the project, but the path’s widening could affect tree roots, Teague’s lawsuit says.
“They’re going to go in and cut off roots from and mortally wound, according to my calculations, which are conservative, and they were done by landscape architects, and we had registered certified arborists review this,” Teague said, “It’s over 120 trees, and so that’s going to reduce the environmental benefits of cooling.”
The lawsuit also argued that the plans will make the path more dangerous by adding intersections and making it easier for faster vehicles to use the path for commuting.
“They have to double down. They can never admit to being wrong and so they go against their own tree preservation policies,” Teague said. “They simply don’t seem to care about public health or safety.”
The judge ruled, however, that Cambridge will have oversight by “various qualified employees and a contractor,” including to protect mature trees in Linear Park. Cambridge may suffer irreparable harm if the project delays continue, while the neighbors failed to show
“The terms of the Project specify widening the path only in areas that do not unreasonably impact any existing healthy trees in Linear Park,” the judge wrote. “Cambridge also has attested that the only trees removed to date in Linear Park have been diseased, no healthy mature trees will be 20 removed under the Project, and the pathway will not be expanded at the expense of tree vitality.”