Lawmakers take first step toward new soccer stadium for New England Revolution in Massachusetts
EVERETT - It's a kick in the right direction for the New England Revolution, as Massachusetts lawmakers have now laid the initial groundwork that could see the team playing home games on Everett's waterfront.
"This has been a long time in the making, over two-and-a-half years I've been working on this issue," said State Sen. Sal DiDominico.
The team has long been pushing to build a stadium on a section of land on Alford Street overlooking Encore Casino.
"Right now, it is a dirty power plant so that's been polluting our land, our water, and our air for decades," added DiDominico.
What's a designated port area?
The senator has been one of the people pushing the project forward. Its inclusion in a recent bill will remove the lands classification as a designated port area, or DPA. He expects the bill to pass Thursday.
"There was no DPA being lifted, then there's no project to talk about," said DiDominico. "It has really been restricting a development on that piece of land, so this legislation allows that to be lifted and a stadium to be built on that site."
He said the stadium will be built without a dime of public funds. He also said the Kraft Group has an agreement with environmental groups to build a new community center and to give $10 million in housing trust funds.
"This project will bring an economic engine to our community but also clean up the land that has been dirty for a long, long time. And put a public park," said DiDominoco. "We have hundreds of jobs being created because of this project. We have all of this tax revenue we have been losing with the power plant that went offline. It has created a big hole in our budget."
Emphasis on public transit
The grounds are slated to have 75 parking spots which doesn't seem like a lot for a stadium.
"We also know that there's many opportunities to increase public transit in that area. A commuter rail stop behind Encore," said DiDominico. They have also been working to approve a footbridge that would link the arena to Assembly Row.
If the DPA is lifted, the next step is community input, where residents will be able to shape what happens.