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City, soccer team get a big break heading into White Stadium trial
On the eve of the trial, a judge ruled that the case will be narrower in scope than the project's opponents had hoped.
The city of Boston and the investors behind a new professional women’s soccer team got an early win Monday, on the eve of a trial that will likely determine the fate of Franklin Park’s White Stadium.
White Stadium:
A judge essentially dismissed half the case of the plaintiffs, a group of local advocates opposed to the city’s plan to redevelop the stadium.
A group of 20 citizens and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, a nonprofit group, are suing the city and Boston Unity Soccer Partners. The city and BUSP are in the process of rehabbing the derelict stadium to the tune of around $200 million through a public-private partnership. A trial starts Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court.
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The plaintiffs are trying to make two key claims: that the project violates the Massachusetts Constitution and that the lease between the city and BUSP breaches the terms of the George Robert White Fund, a permanent public charitable trust. The latter was affected by Judge Matthew Nestor’s ruling Monday.
“The White Fund was established for the benefit of the general public, and the Plaintiffs do not have individual interests in the White Fund distinct from that of the general public,” Nestor wrote.
Now, the trial will be limited to the question of whether or not the project violates Article 97, a state law that requires legislative approval and state review before the use of a public park and recreation land is changed.
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“We are pleased with this initial ruling and look forward to resolving this matter in our favor through the rest of the judicial process,” BUSP Controlling Owner Jennifer Epstein said in a statement. “White Stadium is a community asset that deserves generational infrastructure investment so that the communities around Franklin Park and Boston Public Schools students can enjoy it for decades to come.”
A spokesperson for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy said in response to the ruling that the “core issue” remains the same: “is Franklin Park, including acres of land inside and outside the walls of White Stadium, constitutionally protected public land?”
“We believe that it is, and we’re confident that when all the evidence is presented, the court will agree. The city and BUSP have ignored the many state laws and regulations that are designed to protect the public’s access to public park and recreation land,” they added in a statement to Boston.com.
In another blow to the plaintiffs, Nestor ruled against allowing evidence that would challenge how the city handled the project’s request-for-proposals process.
Questions about the city’s RFP process swirled after recent reports shed light on communications between Epstein and the city as early as September 2022. The city did not issue a formal RFP until April 2023, and BUSP was the only party to submit a proposal. Critics of Mayor Michelle Wu and the project seized on these reports, saying that the RFP process was “secretive and rigged.”
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The city and BUSP insist that the RFP process was conducted completely legally. They say that it was transparent, fair, and that any interested party could have responded alongside BUSP.
Nestor also denied the plaintiffs’ motion to prevent Franklin Park Coalition President Rickie Thompson from being added to the potential witness list.
The city has been working with the Franklin Park Coalition “extensively” over the past two years, and the group supports the renovation plan, according to a spokesperson for Wu’s office.
The mayor has been a major proponent of the project. The city will split construction costs with BUSP, with the agreement that a new National Women’s Soccer League team will get to use the renovated stadium for home games and practices.
Demolition work is already underway at White Stadium, even as the trial begins this week. Residents and other advocates have raised concerns about the project’s impact on the neighborhood, the potential loss of green space, what they say was a rushed community engagement process, and how many student-athletes will be displaced.
Read more about the White Stadium redevelopment and the events that led to the trial here.
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