Development mitigation measures/proffers proposed by Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston

 -- "MGH pushes ahead with nearly $2 billion expansion," Boston Globe

One interesting point made in the article is that the Massachusetts General Hospital campus has 27,000 employees, 78% who get to and from the campus by sustainable modes--walking, biking, and transit.  The Hospital is served by the very busy Charles Street/MGH Station on the Blue Line.

Bicycle parking.  While the project will add car parking spaces for a total of 971, moving them from the surface to underground, it will have more total spaces for bike parking, 1,043 than cars, with the addition of more than 500 spaces.  It also proposes bike lane improvements on Charles Street and elsewhere on the campus.

Public realm improvements.  It proposes a variety of improvements, including two outdoor plazas and a street arcade, wider sidewalks, benches, among others.

Photo credit.

Connecting the Blue and Red Line subways.  Perhaps the biggest mobility contribution is underground tunnel easement and other elements within the complex, to accommodate the extension of the Blue Line from the Charles Street/Massachusetts General Hospital Station, under Charles Street to the Bowdoin Red Line Station, thereby connecting the two lines.

This should spur the MBTA to move the project forward ("Red Line-Blue Line connection could be much cheaper than thought, study says").  They hadn't really prioritized it until three years ago, even though previous administrations had agreed to it as part of environmental and other mitigation measures although they have a target date of 2040.  From the article:

Supporters of the connector say it would make it easier to travel from Logan Airport, East Boston, and Revere — all on the Blue Line — to Red Line stops such as Massachusetts General Hospital and Kendall and Harvard squares in Cambridge. Switching between the two lines now requires a short ride on the Green or Orange lines.

The new estimate includes building a 1,500-foot rail tunnel under Cambridge Street from the Bowdoin stop on the Blue Line and new platforms at Charles/MGH station, where the lines would connect. It also includes the cost of moving utilities. 

It doesn’t include aspects of the project that could increase costs to about $500 million, such as designs, testing, any necessary modifications to vehicles, and finishing touches on the station, like adding elevators.

Since the new hospital construction project will be completed in 2030, MBTA should fast track this connection project so that it can open simultaneously with the newly constructed hospital buildings.

Community center space.  The project also calls for the demolition of a community center, and the proposal calls for providing space for a new community center in the development, along with a food bank.  

Affordable housing.  And a different building on the campus would be shifted to the provision of affordable housing.

=========

It's rare for nonprofit projects, even by large institutions like colleges and hospitals, to include mitigation measures in response to new building projects, which often come at the expense of existing operations.

To me one of the biggest is the cessation of the Seattle waterfront heritage streetcar service.  The Seattle Art Museum extended its campus, creating a sculpture park, and in the process eradicating the yard and maintenance buildings for the streetcar, without having to replace them.  

This is rare.

This rowhouse at 837 22nd St. NW, in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, was built in 1886. It's the last rowhouse on the block and it does not qualify for historical preservation protection. (Frank Leone)

Separately, George Washington University intends to demolish a historic, undesignated building on its campus, as part of a development project ("A District couple hope that GWU won’t tear down an old Foggy Bottom rowhouse," Washington Post).

DC's oversight of the GWU campus plan never imposed serious mitigation measures, especially around historic preservation.

GWU's expansion in Foggy Bottom has pretty much eliminated the residential and mixed use neighborhood that had previously existed, comparable to the impact of schools like New York University on its neighborhood.

Memorable transit proffers.  Boston has some examples of developer contributions to transit station creation such as Federal Realty Investment Trust's Assembly Row and New Balance's new headquarters ("New Balance Bought Its Own Commuter Rail Station," Atlantic Magazine) providing funding for the addition of transit and other mobility improvements.

A casino, the Pittsburgh Stadium Authority and other interests paid towards the extension of the T subway to the North Shore, serving a casino and stadiums for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers.

In Portland, Portland State University paid for station creation and other improvements for the streetcar, including providing access to the streetcar route within the campus, while Oregon Health Sciences University operates the aerial tram.

In New York City, SL Green constructed underground connections between subway stations, its building, and Grand Central Station ("Behind the rise of the 77-story One Vanderbilt," New York Post).

The New York Islanders are paying almost the entire cost for an LIRR station to serve their new arena ("Islanders arena project at Belmont Park now includes new LIRR station," Newsday).  The Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, and forthcoming Seattle Kraken hockey team pay/will pay local transit systems for transit access for ticket holders.

In DC, the city, federal government, and a TIF district taxing property owners each paid 1/3 towards the construction of the infill New York Avenue Red Line Station.

In Seattle, Paul Allen's Vulcan Investments, developer of the SoDo district, paid towards ("Paul Allen's major makeover offers high risks, huge payoffs," Seattle Times) the creation of the Seattle streetcar, to help facilitate his real estate developments (which was a particularly common method by developers during the streetcar development era).  

Subsequently, Amazon paid for additional streetcars and payment for operations to expand service.

Historically, the Van Sweringen brothers of Cleveland are perhaps the most remarkable.  They wanted to build a streetcar service to serve their developments in Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights but couldn't get right of way.  So they bought the Nickel Plate Railroad to get access to the railroad's existing right of way to include the rapid transit service.