The Boston Planning and Development Agency has approved a controversial project to renovate a dilapidated high school sports stadium in an estimated $100-million project for a new professional women’s soccer team that still faces a lawsuit filed by an environmental nonprofit and residents.
Designed by Stantec, the renovation approved by the BPDA on June 18 refreshes a nearly 80-year-old stadium located in Franklin Park, the centerpiece of famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace. The expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League would play up to 20 games per year in the approximately 11,000-seat stadium that would continue to host Boston Public Schools athletic events.
Boston Unity Soccer Partners LLC is splitting the tab for the public-private partnership project evenly with the city, which will borrow its $50 million portion of the funds.
Critics, including the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and other groups, argue that the project encroaches on protected open space by limiting access and creating noise and traffic. They also argue that the project first proposed in 2022 and submitted to the BPDA in December 2023 didn’t provide the community time to review and comment on the plan.
On its website, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy said the project moved forward “without proper environmental review or community process. However, this proposal has alarmed many community members, around the park and city-wide, and is not in the best interest of this important and historic park, the environment or the communities it serves.”
Proponents, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, counter by saying more than 50 public and small group meetings garnered thousands of public comments during a two-year period. The city says those comments were incorporated into the updated design.
“The project will maintain a high level of engagement moving forward to ensure the renovation offers more open public space, enhanced amenities for community events,” the mayor’s office said in a press release, “and closely aligns with the recommendations of the Franklin Park Action Plan.”
Proponents also argue that the plan activates an underused part of the city that otherwise has no other options for redevelopment. Some of the bleachers in what would otherwise be a 10,000-seat stadium are unusable after a fire damaged them decades ago.
