The deadline for sending in comments on the Green Line Extension FEIR has passed. Thank you to the dozens of people who sent in this letter, and to the many others who sent in their own letters. If you would like to send a letter to Medford's mayor and city council, go to www.informedreaders.com/greenline. Secretary Ian Bowles Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs MEPA Office, Attn: Holly Johnson, MEPA Analyst Re: EEA project file number 13886 100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900 Boston, MA 02114 Fax: 617-626-1181 Email: Holly.S.Johnson@state.ma.us Dear Secretary Bowles: I am writing to comment on the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for the Green Line Extension, EEA #13886. I strongly support extending the Green Line all the way to Route 16, and I strongly oppose using the College Avenue Station as a temporary or permanent terminus. The Route 16 Station would serve Medford Hillside, West Medford, West Somerville, and East Arlington, including the environmental justice neighborhoods which were used to justify the entire extension but which are ignored by the proposed project. The Route 16 Station would provide thousands of residents with better access to jobs, to education, and to health care. The Route 16 Station would also be a destination for Somerville and Medford residents along the rest of the extension, who could then take the Green Line to green space and grocery shopping. The decision to use the College Avenue Station as a terminus instead is a terrible mistake for the project as a whole and for the neighborhood around College Avenue in particular. Chapter 4 of the FEIR does not properly analyze the negative effects of using the College Avenue Station as a terminus. In fact, it hardly advances the discussion of this crucial issue beyond the DEIR. When discussing drop-off ridership, the FEIR claims that 88% of the drivers who are willing to drive a passenger to the Route 16 Station would not be willing to drive that passenger to the College Avenue Station. That is not realistic unless the traffic through Medford Hillside and around College Avenue becomes such a nightmare that nobody will voluntarily drive there. The College Avenue Station will serve Tufts and South Medford, but it will not serve Medford Hillside. The definition of Medford Hillside in Appendix C of the FEIR is wrong, and ignores the overwhelming historical and contemporary evidence that College Avenue is not in Medford Hillside. The walk access analysis in Appendix C of the FEIR is misleading, deliberately hiding the fact that almost nobody in any definition of Medford Hillside lives within half a mile of the College Avenue Station. The DEIR repeatedly states that 1/2 mile is the maximum distance people are willing to walk to a transit station. Using Medford's own definition of Medford Hillside from the city's 2010-2015 Strategic Plan, only 3% of the people who live in Medford Hillside live within 1/2 mile of the College Avenue Station. I'm glad that MassDOT was willing to work with residents, city officials, and other stakeholders to come to a better decision on the location of the maintenance facility. MassDOT needs to do that for the location of the terminus. Every excuse that MassDOT has provided for postponing the Route 16 portion of the extension is crumbling. The Route 16 portion cannot be completed by the legally mandated deadline in 2014? MassDOT has just acknowledged that the extension cannot be completed by 2014 even with College Avenue as the terminus. The Route 16 portion is too expensive? MassDOT has released cost breakdowns showing that the costs for the Route 16 portion were overestimated by tens of millions of dollars for taking commercial buildings that MassDOT now admits do not need to be taken. The delay in completing the Green Line Extension is unfortunate, but let's use it as an opportunity to build the Preferred Alternative all the way to Route 16 in a single phase. Thank you.