Dot Rejects Request For Northtown Parking Ramp Funding
The state Department of Transportation turned down a request from Sabey Corp. to help pay nearly half the cost of a $1.9 million ramp into a possible new parking garage at NorthTown Mall.
“The state did not want to consider any new projects,” said DOT spokesman Al Gilson.”
The state made the decision not to fund the Division Street flyover ramp earlier this week, Gilson said. The proposal called for Sabey to pick up 51 percent of the tab, or $956,000, and the DOT to pick up 49 percent, or $919,000.
The ramp would be similar to the one on eastbound Wellesley that connects drivers to NorthTown’s parking garage. Gilson said he didn’t know any specifics about where the ramp would be or how big the garage would be. Repeated efforts to talk with Sabey officials were unsuccessful.
In a written statement, Laurent Poole, executive vice president, said Sabey proposed the ramp to coincide with the state’s Division Street widening.
“While the ramp is not essential to NorthTown’s expansion, it makes sense and is an opportunity to assist the state in its goal of smooth traffic flow on this active corridor,” Poole said in the statement.
A letter in support of the public-private partnership from City Manager Bill Pupo to the DOT says the ramp would take drivers off southbound Division into a parking garage.
Sabey officials last year revealed plans to expand NorthTown, adding a 20-plex cinema, building a Bon Marche at Division and Wellesley and adding parking. Sabey officials have been outspoken in their opposition to a planned public-private partnership to redevelop downtown’s River Park Square, saying the project would hurt other retailers and cost the city money. River Park Square is owned by Citizens Realty Co. and Lincoln Investment Co., affiliates of Cowles Publishing Co., which owns The Spokesman-Review.
Mayor Jack Geraghty said Sabey’s request to use taxpayer money to build the ramp was “ironic as all get out.”
In the written statement, Poole defended the request. “Sabey Corp. has contributed nearly $3 million to improve public streets around NorthTown and would expect any developer to likewise fund improvements to public rights of way which benefit their projects,” he said.
, DataTimes