Westborough holds joint info session on Boston‑Worcester Airline Trail; residents split over cost, safety and plant impacts

Westborough planning staff on a cold evening reviewed the town’s long‑running plan to build the Boston‑Worcester Airline Trail (BWALT), describing a segmented approach that they said relies on state and federal grants, negotiated easements and developer contributions while cautioning full completion could take years.

Jenny Gingerge, Westborough’s director of planning, told a joint select board and planning board audience the BWALT is a regional, multi‑segmented project that follows an historic trolley corridor and is intended to connect Westborough with neighboring towns. She said segment 2 is in preliminary (25%) design with consultant GM2 and that the town has pursued MassTrails and other grants to pay most professional design and construction costs. Gingerge told the meeting the project timeline shown in outreach materials estimates full buildout could occur by about 2039 if current plans and funding paths hold.

The session focused on funding, route details and community impacts. Gingerge summarized prior steps: a multi‑year feasibility study completed in 2021 that the select board accepted, earlier public outreach and a decade of town‑meeting articles that have funded surveys, easements and preliminary engineering. She told residents segment 2 received a $400,000 MassTrails grant for design and that town meeting had authorized a $110,000 match; the feasibility study from 2021 projected roughly $24–26 million in construction costs with an estimated town share in 2021 dollars of about $2.5 million. Gingerge also said town meeting appropriations since 2013 totaling about $366,114 (including roughly $126,000 from the open space fund) have supported planning tasks.

The presentation prompted contrasting public comments. Janet Anderson, a long‑time Chauncey Street resident, said the proposed spur along Chauncey would be a ‘‘lifeline’’ that would let her neighborhood safely reach downtown and the commuter rail; she urged the town to act on safety grounds, saying, "This trail needs to be built before somebody gets killed." Other residents and regional trail advocates voiced similar arguments about connectivity, recreation and potential local economic benefits.

By contrast, several speakers urged a pause or reexamination of assumptions. Andy Kenigsberg told the boards the feasibility study and early project history merit independent review, saying in part that "the only reason we had a feasibility study done was because $58,000 of grant money for trail construction was mismanaged back in 2017." He urged renewed public engagement and a fresh, independent look at the study’s assumptions in light of current fiscal constraints.

Operational conflicts at the wastewater treatment plant were the meeting’s most technical concern. Michael Stanton, chair of the town’s Wastewater Treatment Plant Board, read a letter saying portions of the planned route run on or directly adjacent to treatment plant property, cross conduits that serve a solar array and could limit access for service vehicles. He warned that sections of the route "will encroach upon ... land held in reserve for possible future expansion" and asked staff and proponents to find alternate alignment in those areas.

Town staff and board members responded to these concerns with process and program details. Town manager Christie Williams and planning staff described a 2022 implementation memo and work with regional partners (CMRPC, MassDOT) and consultants to pursue grants and to present alternatives when design or environmental concerns arise. Jenny Gingerge said the Meadow Road alternative is under review by the consultant and will be shown at a future public information meeting for affected property owners. The town repeatedly emphasized that any use of town funds for construction would require a separate town‑meeting appropriation.

Board members stressed phasing and grant strategies as the way to limit taxpayer exposure. Several select board members reiterated that the segmented approach is intentional: it enables the town to pursue MassTrails, TIP, MassWorks and other funding for discrete sections and to accept developer‑constructed segments during related site development. They also acknowledged outreach had at times been uneven and asked staff to continue and expand public engagement.

Next steps: the planning board said it will hold a meeting in the next two to three weeks to consider the public input and the design work, and the town intends a future public information meeting about the Meadow Road alternative and the segment‑2 design. Staff and boards said they will continue to pursue grants, negotiate easements where possible and bring any requests for town spending back to town meeting for approval.

There were no votes on trail build or funding decisions at the session; the meeting concluded after board discussion and procedural motions to adjourn.