Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 14:14:28 -0500
From: p.enrich@neu.edu
To: lex-tmma@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [lex-tmma] Hanscom ESPR Hearing -- 11/7

I am writing, in my capacity as Lexington's representative to the Hanscom
Field Advisory Commission and as the Lexington Selectman member of the
Hanscom Area Towns Committee, to make sure that you are aware of a
tremendously important meeting this Thursday evening.

As many of you know, every five years, MassPort is required to prepare an
environmental report on its activities at Hanscom Field.  The report,
formerly known as a GEIR (Generic Environmental Impact Report), is now
called an Environmental Status and Planning Report (ESPR).  The report is
prepared under the supervision of the Mass. Executive Office of
Environmental Affairs's MEPA Office.  (MEPA is an acronym for the Mass.
Environmental Policy Act.)

MassPort filed its draft of the ESPR over the summer, and interested
citizens and experts on behalf of the towns have been reviewing it since
then.  This Thursday, the MEPA Office will be holding its official public
hearing on the draft, prior to issuing directions to MassPort about how to
modify the draft in preparing the final ESPR.

MassPort's draft is deeply troubling in many ways.  It anticipates dramatic
increases in the number of commercial passenger operations at Hanscom.  It
anticipates as many as three new access roads into the airport, including
one from Hartwell Ave.  It anticipates the initiation of scheduled (i.e.
nighttime) cargo service at Hanscom, as well as a new hotel.

This report could pave the way for escalating expansion of the types and
intensity of uses at Hanscom.  Yet, it seeks to obscure and minimize the
impacts of such growth.  And it suggests utterly inadequate (if at times
problematic) measures to mitigate those impacts (such as installation of
rotaries at several overtaxed intersections).

The MEPA Office does have the authority to require radical alterations in
MassPort's Draft, alterations which could significantly further our efforts
to contain Hanscom's expansion.  But they will only do so if they hear from
the communities in force and volume.

I urge you to come out to the hearing and show your concern about this
issue.  Whether or not you wish to speak at the hearing, your presence will
reinforce the message of those who do speak.

The meeting will be held in the Bedford Town Hall (off of the Great Road
shortly after passing through the Bedford town center), 
this Thursday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 PM.

I hope to see many of you there.  And I encourage you to spread the word to
your friends and neighbors.

-- Peter Enrich