Page 8 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – Friday, April 26, 2019 City of Everett to host meeting for urban renewal plan The URP will highlight the City’s future vision for the Commercial Triangle O n Thursday, May 2, 2019 the DeMaria administraVisit Our Newly Expanded Facility. We will beat competitors pricing! (Restrictions apply.) tion will host a meeting on the Urban Renewal Plan (URP); the meeting will begin at 6:00 pm at the enVision Hotel, 1834 Revere Beach Parkway. The URP will highlight the City’s future vision for the Commercial Triangle. The Commercial Triangle is 222 Central St. Saugus, MA 01906 (Next to Saugus Iron Works) 781-231-5990 2FREE ND MONTH on 10x10 units No administration fees. 200 new units available. All sizes to fi t your needs. New Customer Specials Offer valid at 222 Central Storage. Must present coupon. Cannot be combined with other offers. Expires 6/12/19. www.222centralstorage.com FREE with Rental LOCK bordered by the Parkway, Everett Avenue and the train tracks, coming back up to the residential neighborhood behind Richie’s Slush. The Study Area is a mix of commercial buildings and residential uses. “My administration will work with our City Officials and community stakeholders to develop a viable strategy that builds upon past work, including the recently completed Commercial Triangle Study,” said DeMaria. “The plan will highlight our ambitious future vision for the area, and identify implementation tools for the realization of that vision.” The Everett Square Urban Renewal Plan will examine a balance of land use and public realm initiatives to foster the study area’s development as a destination for residents, workers, and businesses, and create a sense of place within the City of Everett. The purpose of the URP is to formulate a blueprint that adapts to challenging conditions the general economic and physical landscape. The URP will also integrate market considerations at the local level and will include a greater emphasis on traffic circulation, infrastructure improvements, zoning, land use, and redevelopment opportunities. All residents and business owners are encouraged to come to the enVision Hotel to learn more about the development, share their thoughts and impressions and participate in this important meeting. For questions regarding the meeting, you may contact Tony Sousa or Michael Vivaldi at the Planning and Development Office at 617-394-2334. ~ OP-ED ~ Earth Day By Mayor Carlo DeMaria T his week, as we celebrate Earth Day, it is important that we raise awareness of both our environmental assets and the natural beauty that surrounds us, so that we all have a greater appreciation of the impacts that climate can have on us here locally. My goal is for our community to sustainably provide the amenities and services that residents expect – while working to protect our city from the dramatic effects of climate change. As we are all increasingly aware, we are a community surrounded by water. The Mystic River, the Malden River, the Amelia Earhart Dam, Island End River, North and South Creek and Town Line Brook are all in and around Everett. Each of these water bodies is subject to the impacts of climate change. At any time, they can cause enormous infrastructure damage as we face severe storms. In addition, these storms can overwhelm our storm water infrastructure and release large amounts of pollutants into our water bodies, causing toxic algae blooms and limiting recreational activities for days at a time. This past year, we have already seen an increase in sea level rise and storm surge. Storms caused flooding and undermined the parking lot of the New England Produce Center, and came within 18 inches to over-topping the Amelia Earhart Dam. This could have had catastrophic consequences including flooding a major National Grid substation along the Malden River. Many of our industrial facilities are located in areas vulnerable to flooding, including District Gas, the LNG Marine Terminal, the Exxon Mobil Marine Terminal, the New England Produce Center, Aggregate Industries, Amazon and Craft Brewers, just to name a few. That is why we are working to identify all our vulnerabilities, paired with actionable steps to sustainably move our economy forward and assure that we can be resilient when major flooding occurs. And we are working to build resiliency into any future projects. We are repairing all existing tide gates and installing new ones to reduce flooding during abnormally high tides. We are partnering with the City of Chelsea to build green infrastructure, much like the Living Shore Line at the Encore resort, to mitigate flooding along the northern tip of the Island End Stream. This project will remove the deteriorating and ineffective hard barriers with a natural berm, add a walking path, and dramatically reduce the risk to vulnerable populations, infrastructure and businesses. We are working with public and private partners to daylight as much of the Island End stream as possible. For the past 100 years, Island End stream has been channelized and buried underground. By daylighting this stream, we will bring this buried waterway back to life by physically uncovering and restoring it. This will reduce polluted runoff, address flash flooding concerns, and improve the livability of this area of the city that has long been forgotten. We can and will improve our environment and the quality of our lives at the same time. Our modern car culture is responsible for nearly one-third of harmful emissions in the United States. I want cars off our roads, with traffic congestion a thing of the past, and active, healthy transportation like biking and walking prioritized. The Broadway dedicated bus-lane is successful and has gained international acclaim. It has reduced bus travel time by 20 percent and it has become a model for local innovation to improve transit. We have installed new raised boarding platforms to make it even easier for riders and a new state of the art traffic signal technology to prioritize buses at intersections to further reduce travel time. We are partnering with Encore and will soon have a local shuttle service that will circle you around Everett to the MBTA. We are also on the leading edge of bike sharing. Last year we introduced Lime Bike. This year we are bringing Blue Bikes to Everett. We are the first community to have both services. That means if you want to bike to Boston, Cambridge or Somerville you can take a Blue Bike. If you want to take a bike to Malden, Medford, Revere, and a host of other North Shore Communities, you can take a Lime Bike. By introducing these programs in Everett, we are building sustainable, low cost and convenient local transportation options to residents and visitors of all incomes, ages and abilities, increasing the quality of experience and providing greater access to jobs, amenities, and local services. We are in the midst of a cultural shift when it comes to car ownership, driven in large part by the values and preferences of our young people. And I am proud to be working with the Boston University MetroBridge program, where EARTH DAY | SEE PAGE 15 Reserve your unit NOW!
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