A project related to a study done to create a more neighborhood-friendly street along the Rutherford Avenue corridor in Charlestown has been put on hold indefinitely due to lack of funding.
Currently, the corridor is used as an overflow for traffic coming from the north on Interstate 93. A continuing problem of traffic buildup could potentially result in difficulty for developers along Rutherford Avenue as well as developers in the North Station area on the other side of the Charlestown Bridge.
Nick Iselin of Boston-based Intercontinental Cos. said that Intercontinental has participated in similar efforts to work on transportation issues, accessibility issues and upgrading the retail potential to ensure the sustainability of mixed-use development.
Conducted two years ago, the Rutherford Avenue Corridor Transportation study found a need to turn the existing roadway, which now functions purely as a highway, into a more neighborhood-oriented street, creating improved traffic flow and accessibility for drivers, bikers and pedestrians. Participants in the study included citizens from Charlestown, Somerville, Cambridge and Everett.
Rebecca Barnes, currently chief planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, acted as project manager for the study. Barnes said the next step in advancing the project, which could include narrowing the street, creating more green space and converting the existing Sullivan Square rotary into a normal intersection, would be an environmental impact analysis.
“The planning, design and environmental analysis could be done in the meantime while we wait for the money,” Barnes said. “The problem is that there are too many projects in the state competing for transportation money.”
Developers seem to believe that while the changes to the Rutherford Avenue corridor are necessary, the current issue of traffic has not been an overwhelming problem for their projects.
Ogden Hunnewell, a principal with Burlington-based Nordic Properties who is redeveloping the Hood Business Park on Rutherford Avenue, said the inherent benefits of the area, including access to downtown and the quality of the buildings in the neighborhood, outweigh any current negatives.
With 20 acres and 1.2 million square feet of space, Hunnewell said that Nordic Properties is looking to create an entire campus with a variety of amenities, including a cafeteria, bank and exercise facility. He said, however, that redeveloping Rutherford Avenue to create better traffic flow would be beneficial for the future.
‘Suitable Developments’
Similarly, Iselin said that tenants interested in the area are not focused on the current situation but the improvements that will occur over the next several years. Intercontinental is currently redeveloping the Stop & Shop property located at the intersection of North Washington and Causeway streets, near the entrance to the Charlestown Bridge and the beginning of Rutherford Avenue.
“It’s a good area now that is handicapped a little bit by the Central Artery construction, but in five years it’s going to be one of the best places in Boston,” Iselin said.
“I think as we get into what suitable developments are for a changing Boston, more and more often they’re mixed use, and I think that Rutherford Avenue is probably no different in bringing uses that revitalize the area 24 hours a day through residential, retail and commercial,” he said.
Although the completion of the Central Artery project will ease the traffic congestion along the Rutherford Avenue corridor, redeveloping the street would also create a better link between Charlestown and the North Station and downtown areas of Boston, proving valuable for both developers and potential tenants.
Bob O’Brien, a 12-year member of the Downtown North Association, said he believes development and transportation in the area are essentially opposite sides of the same coin, with one unable to survive without the other. The redevelopment of Rutherford Avenue is directly tied to the development potential of both the North Station area and the Rutherford Avenue corridor, he said.
“It becomes all the more significant as Rutherford Avenue itself becomes developed but also, as City Square and other areas that are being developed as a result of the Central Artery project come on line, it’s going to become increasingly important for traffic circulation in the whole area,” O’Brien said of the need for the redevelopment.
According to Karen McFarland, a broker with Boston-based McFarland & Finch, the Rutherford Avenue improvements are necessary to sustain future development and greater activity that developers like Hunnewell hope to achieve through their mixed-use projects.
“You’ve got to have the proper infrastructure to attract the tenants and in order to have traffic move smoothly,” she said.
Asked whether potential tenants would be dissuaded from leasing because of the current traffic problems, McFarland said, “I think it would be a concern to people who have to travel north and west of the city. It could certainly have an impact.”
McFarland added, however, that knowing the redevelopment of Rutherford Avenue is somewhere in the future could also ease fears about leasing in the area.
“To know that it’s planned and that there’s a certain time frame to it would certainly be a plus,” she said.
However, according to Barnes, until funding becomes available, the project will remain at a standstill.
