A swift vote by the Select Board on five separate matters Monday night represented what officials referred to as acquisition of the “last 5%” of land needed for a project decades in the making.
“This is a thrilling, exciting moment for Belmont,” Select Board member Matt Taylor told The Voice Tuesday morning. “It’s been decades coming. It’s taken countless people.”
According to Taylor, school, state, and town land—including a donation of land from the Belmont Citizens Forum—account for 95% of the land needed for the development of Phase 1 of the community path.
“For a lot of us, it’s hard to believe we’re here,” he said.
The Community Path Project has been considered for more than two decades. In 2019, the town selected Nitsch Engineering to design the path. Phase 1 will run from the Fitchburg Cutoff Path at the Cambridge line to the Clark Street bridge. When Phase 2 is finished, it will complete a 2-mile link in the Mass Central Rail Trail, which will eventually run 104 miles from Boston to Northampton.
The votes were required Monday night to stay on schedule for Phase I of the community path, according to Town Counsel Mina Makarious.
“Then we’ll go out to bid and move from there,” he said.
Taylor said the advertising date for bids is set for Sept. 5. The state will select a winner in late fall or early winter, he said.
“There’s a bit more to [do to] tie up loose ends, but this was the last major milestone before it really becomes a state project and then the state takes over,” Taylor said.
The five matters, which culminated in the acquisition rights for Belmont to proceed with the path, included the final MBTA lease for Phase I (a 99-year lease); permanent and temporary easements on private property; the donation of land from the Belmont Citizens Forum; a license to use Department of Conservation and Recreation Property; and votes for use of town land.
In a presentation to the Select Board and the community Monday night, Taylor said appraisals were completed in early July, followed by compensation letters sent to property owners on July 9. He noted that Belmont did not choose compensation amounts; they were determined by an independent appraisal firm, which was then peer reviewed—both firms were hired by the town, and their services paid for using part of a $475,000 MassTrails grant awarded last year.
Taylor relayed some of the expectations promised to property owners, including that the contractor is required to “protect and restore property,” and that the town will cover rodent mitigation around the construction of the tunnel under the railroad tracks. A resident engineer will eventually be hired to serve as a point of contact for the project, according to Taylor. This cost will be included as part of the contractor’s contract with the state.
While 100% of the construction is funded with state and federal money through the state’s Transportation Improvement Program, the design and right-of-way acquisition costs are the town’s responsibility, Community Path Committee Chair Holly Muson previously said. Town Meeting approved $160,000 in Community Preservation Act money, which will serve as the match for the $475,000 MassTrails grant.
This week’s milestone follows about a year and a half of meetings at the local and state level, during which officials questioned whether the project would meet the deadline for the state’s fiscal year 2026 funding through the Transportation Improvement Program.
“At any step, if we missed a deadline…we were going to miss our window,” Taylor said. “It’s been a year and half of that. I’m immensely grateful for all the people involved. . . . I’m excited for our community.”
