Rail Trails, Fairy Tales and Bylaws

Sudbury wants a Rail Trail.  That is obvious.  Sudbury’s process to create a Rail Trail, however, is seriously flawed.  Let’s start with a little background information. "Rail Trail" is a label/name that applies to any trail that "shares" a railroad Right of Way (RoW).  A MADOT (MA Department of Transportation) multi use path is a trail whose design and construction is fixed by state law and state design mandates.  A Greenway is a trail whose design and construction is adapted to meet applicable environmental standards, local bylaws and codes.  Management authority for a MADOT trail is the state.  Management authority for a Greenway is the Town.  The Bruce Freeman Rail Trail (BFRT) is simply a name the State has assigned to the railroad RoW that passes through Sudbury from Lawrence to Framingham. The name resulted from a lobbying campaign by the advocacy group “Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail”, (the Friends).  The name of the trail remains unchanged over the entire length of trail regardless of whether the RoW is built up as a Greenway or a MADOT trail.  It is important to understand that although the Friends market the BFRT as a state project, it is not a state project.  If it were a state project the state would be required to address the environmental impact of the entire length of trail.  Under Massachusetts Law (MA Environmental Policy Act, MEPA 301 CMR 11.00) the impact of the BFRT exceeds the threshold requirements that would likely cause direct or indirect damage to the environment.  Lobbying of MADOT by the Friends has divided the 20 + mile trail into 7 local trails that connect at town boundary lines.  One trail in each town along the RoW and each towns’ trail length kept beneath the threshold for triggering the full effect of state environmental law.   This divide and conquer tactic necessitates the Friends lobby all town managers/committees, influence all town meetings and influence all town elections to put the town trail projects back together into the full length of the BFRT while continuing to avoid the higher legal standards of MEPA.  And they have heavily lobbied Sudbury to accomplish this purpose. The recently passed Article 32 in Town Meeting 2014 exclusively funds the 25% design for the BFRT in Sudbury as a MADOT trail. Any thought of state compliance with Sudbury’s bylaws for a MADOT trail is a non-starter.  It is a fairy tale. The BoS, one of whom is a recent board member of the Friends, created Article 32 to resemble a rational, reasonable way to move forward toward construction of a Rail Trail.  In fact, Article 32 specifically denies consideration of Greenways. The most distressing fact about Article 32 is that completion of the 25% MADOT design will enable Sudbury’s portion of the BFRT to be recognized at the state level as a MADOT project.  It will begin the formal transfer of design management and legal compliance to the state.  In summary, the current status of the Rail Trail is that the appropriate state environmental law for the entire length of the trail has been eliminated. And our selectmen, with financial lobbying from the Friends (the gift of $58,700 for MADOT design), are disregarding the local bylaws for Sudbury’s section of the trail.  Please note any Rail Trail, at both the state and the local level, is an amenity; not a necessity.  There is no justification to ignore MEPA 301 CMR 11.00 or to ignore local bylaws.    It does not set a good precedent for a Town to enable violation of its’ own bylaws.  Now, what do we do next?

At Town Meeting we tried, but we could not amend Article 32 to design and compare the risks and benefits of a Greenway versus a MADOT trail.  Many MA communities have validated, Greenways can be designed, constructed and placed into full operation within 3 years.  Greenways can, and will, comply with Sudbury’s bylaws as long as we maintain management of this local project at the local level. We can still have a Greenway long before we can have a MADOT trail.  Greenway cost has been validated at approximately 7% the cost of a MADOT Trail.  And, with the possible exception of high-speed bicycle racers and roller-blades, it will meet our recreational needs without violating our bylaws.  Let’s begin constructing Greenways immediately. THINK GREENWAY.  Let’s do this the right way. The writer is a 19 year member of the Rails to Trails Conservancy.