NE10 Wins Court Decision on Long Wharf Status

A seven-year dispute between the North End Ten (NE10) and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (PRA) appears to have come to an end relating to the opening of a restaurant on Long Wharf.

US District Court Judge Patti B. Saris ruled Long Wharf is a public open space, as contended by the neighborhood group and cannot be converted into a restaurant.

Saris ruled in favor of the NE10, stating that it should remain open parkland protected by the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act.

The BRA was attempting to claim the public open space and allow an enclosed 220 seat, 4,655 square foot restaurant in the area.

Apparently, the BRA is reviewing the decision with their attorneys but NE10 feels a reversal is very slam, giving the fact that it was a 26 page really in depth and well reasoned explanation of all the issues involving the case.

NE10 was originally sent the wrong hand-written map from 1993 where a restaurant had already been approved.

When it was revealed by old maps that the area of the pavilion on the wharf was in fact protected, the group changed its stand on the issue, but the BRA persisted and continued saying, the site was not parkland.

NE10 claimed the BRA removed information from its website, admittedly when the first map was developed on a survey map.

All of a sudden, they noted the street map changed, the color green for parkland space was morphed into gray for commercial space, the neighborhood group contended.

Since the area is now recognized as parkland, it has Massachusetts Constitutional protection under Article 97 and a two-thirds vote of the Legislature is needed to change the status of the parkland.

            Reportedly, NE10 would have been fine with little vendors or pushcarts like they do in Haymarket.