(At the end of his first year in office, Mayor Jared Nicholson sat down with The Item’s editorial board to discuss his administration’s achievements in 2022. This is the second of a five-part series on the discussion.)
By: Anthony Cammalleri
ITEM STAFF
LYNN — Last year, Lynners saw sweeping changes in public transport, from the commuter rail station’s closure in October to the Lynn parking garage demolition slated to begin this spring. Mayor Jared Nicholson’s administration worked to manage displaced commuters and orient the city’s development plans around transportation.
In July, the MBTA announced Lynn Station’s imminent closure, sparking outrage from stranded commuters and members of the state delegation.
Nicholson said that while the MBTA reconstructs the station located in Central Square, the city will seek to use the municipally owned lot between School Street and Ellis Street as a temporary train platform — putting a pause on the plan to convert it into a housing complex.
“School Street was delayed because of the issues in Central Square, the MBTA parking garage [closure] and wanting to factor that into the planning for that site,” Nicholson said. “It’s about the need for spaces and also the opportunity to build a temporary platform to reopen that station during reconstruction.”
With the Lynn Station parking garage slated for demolition in spring, Nicholson said that he hopes to partner with members of the state delegation to develop around both the reconstructed parking and the transit station site.
He said that the city is trying to balance its immediate goal of mitigation efforts with its long-term plan of expanding commerce and transportation in downtown Lynn.
“This is the transportation hub of the City of Lynn, so we’re trying to get the most out of the those combined sites. In the short term, there’s a urgency to to get a temporary platform going so that people can get on and off in Lynn, but in the medium term, wanting to spur a state-of-the-art station that serves Lynn’s needs for decades, and transit-oriented development that makes the most of that site that’s in such a key location,” Nicholson said.
As the city seeks developers for the approximately 65-acre Gear Works site on the Lynnway — formerly used as a General Electric industrial facility — Nicholson said that a future T stop in the area is not off the table.
“It’s going to require collaboration with the owner, with the city, and with the potential developers that want to do business there and figure out what could work,” Nicholson said. “That’s got to be part of the electrification division, so it’s not just Central Square but also a full service stop at the Gear Works.”
