Revere City staff drop proposed vegetated berm at Gibson Park; will redesign park and pursue drainage funding

Revere City planning staff said they will remove a proposed vegetated berm from the Gibson Park resiliency plan and focus on park improvements and drainage design after state regulators advised that new seawalls are not permitted.

Tom (Planning and Development) told a community meeting that the city’s conversations with the state’s coastal regulators made clear that “a seawall is not something that would be allowed.” He said coastal regulators also flagged limits on the number and siting of maintenance access points for any shoreline work. Based on that guidance and neighborhood opposition, staff said they plan to revise the park designs to exclude the berm.

The change follows a July neighborhood meeting and a formal MEPA (Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act) filing the city submitted on July 1. Tom said the MEPA certificate that followed raised design and maintenance-access concerns but did not provide the written opinion the city had requested. He said follow-up calls with the state’s coastal zone management…