Months into his first term as city councilor for District 8, Josh Zakim is resurrecting a decades-long fight between Boston and supporters of a 218-acre park located about one hour north of the city. As has been tried before, the downtown councilor is seeking ways to sell Mary Cummings Park using a legal doctrine that allows the municipality to do so if it’s no longer able to fulfill the original trust agreement through which Boston was gifted the land.
When 20th century philanthropist Mary Cummings died in 1930, her will called for 300 acres on the Woburn-Burlington line to be preserved as a public common entrusted to the City of Boston. Cummings’ assets, including her home on North Market Street in Boston, were set aside in a fund to cover maintenance costs for the land.
According to Zakim, who introduced an order at the April 4 City Council meeting to exhume the issue, “The property has fallen into disuse–at least by residents of the city of Boston.” Indeed, Cummings’ will stipulated that if Boston is unwilling or unable to fulfill its promise to preserve the park, the trust and property shall transfer to the Playground and Recreation Association of America.
In order to preserve its stake, the City of Boston has repeatedly claimed that the property gets little-to-no use–that despite its hosting a new soccer field, hiking trails, and a favorite open field for remote control airplane hobbyists. Still, they’re sticking to their story.
“The Cummings Trust is an extremely valuable and underutilized asset and I want to examine ways that we can make it more productive for residents of Boston,” Zakim wrote in an email to DigBoston.
The Boston Finance Commission, a municipal watchdog group, assessed the value of the Cummings property at $22 million. That was back in 1998, in a report calling for the sale of said land to pay for ongoing maintenance costs at what’s since become Millennium Park in West Roxbury.
Zakim says, “I think it’s safe to say that the value has gone up significantly,” and his hearing order touts FinComm’s $22 million figure. That same order, however, fails to mention that such a high price tag only applies if the land is used for residential or industrial development. If it remains a park, its value is much lower, according to a 2001 memo from then-Mayor Tom Menino’s office. That same year, the Boston Redevelopment Authority had shamelessly endorsed a nefarious scheme to transform the public area into a high-end golf course abutted by McMansions. It failed, but that didn’t stop officials.
Between 2002 to 2007, the city used $169,213 from the Cummings maintenance trust to pay for lawyers and surveyors. “This seems to happen every five years or so,” says Stephen O’Leary, president of the Friends of Mary Cummings Park, a nonprofit advocacy group. “Someone floats a trial balloon to try and pry the money loose from the trust.”
The defense front first formed in 2005, after the city attempted to sell the parkland. In response, they pursued legal action against Boston for neglecting to appropriately use the trust for maintenance.
“We felt that given the history of periodic attempts to break the trust and sell this public parkland for private development, that a group should be formed which could organize volunteer efforts and advocate for long-term sustainable management of this large and important public park,” says Pat O’Reilly, co-founder of the group.
Delegates from the crusading group plan to testify at Zakim’s upcoming hearing, which at the time of this writing has yet to be scheduled by the Committee on Environment and Parks. And the friends may not be alone in speaking up. During the meeting where Zakim proposed the hearing, Mattapan Councilor Charles Yancey, who O’Leary describes as an ally of the park, implied that he was open to preserving the space.
“If used properly,” said Yancey, “it could be a great asset for our parks department.”
Perhaps it already is.
