No Northbound Ramp Wanted

A new proposal to revive plans for a state-funded northbound ramp to I-495 from Route 140 in Mansfield met with a decisive end Wednesday, after selectmen restated a years-old pact with neighbor Norton, and unanimously opposed any such plans.

Selectmen from the two towns came to a rare agreement in the late 1990's to support plans for the creation of a southbound ramp to I-495 that would ease traffic problems on Route 140 in Mansfield and Norton, especially during the concert season, and would provide easier access to 600 acres of undeveloped industrial park land in front of the in Norton.

Norton and Mansfield boards and residents had held several joint meetings, in a rare show of cooperation between two towns who chose to override generations of political friction for the good of the wider community.

As part of the long process, the boards also unanimously declined to support a northbound ramp in the same interchange, because the two possible routes for the ramp were fraught with peril - one blasted through Mansfield conservation land that had been painstakingly set aside by the town and a private land trust, and the other razed private homes along Route 140, some of which had been occupied by the same families for generations. Norton would have benefited from the northbound ramp, as it would have created better access to the bank-owned industrial park land, and a better chance of developing it and building tax generating businesses there, but Norton officials chose to put their support behind Mansfield to get the one ramp done.

After endorsing an option that would put the path of a southbound ramp through the property of a willing seller in 1998 -- local businessman Karl Clemmey, who lived off Route 140 -- the ramp plans went through a series of stops and starts. The towns even had to re-state their opposition to the northbound ramp in the winter of 2005, when Mass Highway District 5 put a halt to the southbound plans, saying it would not proceed unless the town allowed a full cloverleaf interchange.

Finally, the towns were informed in August of 2009, after ten years of tabled plans and design glitches, that the ramp construction, minus any northbound plans, could go ahead, at a proposed cost of about $3 million, funded by the 2009 Transportation Improvement Program for the Southeastern Metropolitan Planning Organization. That project is now underway.

But Clemmey, who owns a commercial parking lot adjacent to the , revived talks of the northbound route only recently, bringing it up twice at selectmen's meetings. Wednesday, board chairman Kevin Moran gave the topic one more airing.

"Some people were in favor of this, and some were very much opposed," Moran told the board. "It had been the choice of previous boards not to pursue it."

Moran said he had intended to send another letter to Mass Highway, re-stating the town was not interested in a northbound ramp, but decided all the board members should have a chance to discuss the matter.

Town Manager Bill Ross has been going through old documents trying to retrace the years of meetings and discussions, and he told the board their is ample evidence that there was much opposition to the northbound ramp from both communities.

"The ramp would displace a family," said member Doug Annino. "I am adamantly opposed to it," he said, adding the Giles family on Route 140 would sacrifice their home. "There are questionable benefits for the town."

Board member Jess Aptowitz agreed, saying the majority of people who sent letters to the board in the past were against it. He noted if a number of residents had expressed interest in renewing the proposal, the issue would be different.

"I think we would have heard from several people saying they were now in favor," said member Olivier Kozlowski.

Vice chairman George Dentino said he was hesitant to offer comment, because he lives on Gladiola Terrace, near the site of the current construction and possibly in the path of any proposed northbound ramp, but he said he has been following the process closely for years.

The board voted, with Dentino abstaining, to send a letter to Mass Highway, reiterating their previous stance that the second ramp is not wanted in Mansfield.