Pact reached

on Greenway

management

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The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy will be a private, nonprofit charitable corporation formed by the city, the state, and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to govern and maintain the new public space created by the depression of the Central Artery.

• The Thrnpike Authority pays for all maintenance through 2012, so the conservancy can build up its endowment.

• The conservancy will raise money for maintaining the space, which will cost $3 million to $10 million annually. It will be boosted by an initial pledge of $5 million in matching funds from the Then-pike Authority, and will have the goal of raising $20 million by 2007.

II The conservancy will be governed by a 10-person board, five appointed by the Turnpike Authority, two by the state, two by the city, and one by the Kennedy family. The Turnpike Authority turnpike recommends a candidate for executive director that must be approved by the board. There will also be a director of development and a two-person staff.

• The proposed botanical gardens near Dewey Square will remain outside of the conservancy's jurisdiction, but the new organization will otherwise control the corridor from Kneeland Street to Causeway Street

Nonprofit will govern public space

THE BOSTON GLOBE

Turnpike will help jump-start conservancy

By Anthony Flint

GLOBE STA,

The city, the Romney administration, and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority have agreed to establish au independent, nonprofit organization to run the Rose Kennedy Greenway, ending years of political turf battles over the parklands and development set for the footprint of the old Central Artery.

Governor Mitt Romney, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Thrnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello are set to sign the document creating the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy at 10 a.m. today in the mayor's office at Bo--ton City Hall, using Mayor James Michael Curley's antique desk.

The conservancy, modeled after a similar citizen-run organizai Con ,that inaintaias Centro Falk in New York, will raise money to maintain the new spare and help schedule events on it. The conservancy will get help (ruin the turnpike to get started one dollar from the authority for every private dollar the conservancy raises,

MATTHEW AMORELLO Will recommend director

up to $5 million.

The Turnpike Authority also promises to cover all operational and maintenance costs through 2012, at an estimated cost of $15 million. In return, the authority gets to appoint live of the 10 conservancy board members; the city and state will each appoint two, and the Kennedy family will appoint one. Amorello will also recommend S.)Irtei,11C to sei-se s ex-waive director.

"it's a monumental thing, an historic thing," said retired Judge Edmund Reggie, Kennedy's father-in-law, who confirmed the agreement yesterday. Reggie bro-

G REENWAY, Page B2

BZ, City & Region

keeltEldWiVir of negotiations over get ItittWOPtitiecafethway during the last three months. "There were a thousand hurdles, but everybody

wanted it to happen. The governor

I enti tremendous amount of good faith, and so did the chairman. I've never seen a. group of political people get together and decide that this was a good project for the city and the Commonwealth, and therefore to submerge all political feelings?

Those feelings run deep. Rom-

ney has been trying to eliminate

the Turnpike Authority for the last two years, calling it a wasteful, patronage-laden "rogue agency." But the governor today will share the stage with Amorello, and sign a document that gives the agency substantial control over the prized 27 acres created by the $14.6 billion Big Dig.

Romney is ready to sign legislation that gives future governors more control over the Turnpike Authority, starting at the end of Amorello's term, in 2007. That legislation makes the state transportation secretary chairman of the nirripike Authority hoard, and reduces Amorelkes job to general manager at half the current $205,000 annual salary.

Menino was concerned that the

Turnpike. Authority had too much

control over the conservancy, according to officials involved in the negotiations, but ultimately deferred to Kennedy, who wanted to show visitors at the upcoming Democratic National Convention that the future of the Greenway was secure. The senior senator

ANTH()NYFIINT

plans to lead a Greenway dedication ceremony on July 2ti, the first day of the convention, on land beside Hanover Street that will become a park.

The plans for the Greenway have been debated for 15 years, but there was always uncertainty over its long-term management,

because three major government entities have been involved. The

state, which began the project before handing it over to the Turnpike Authority in 1997, technically owns the land. But the authority

runs the Big Dig, and has paid for

and guided the design and construction of what is planned for the surface — three major park sections in the North End, near the New England Aquarium, and in Chinatown, and private development arid cultural buildings interspersed along the corridor.

The city has sought control over the surface project because the land runs right through the heart of downtown Boston, although from the beginning it has not offered to pay for any construction or maintenance.

Under the terms of the conservancy agreement, the city retains broad powers over what planners

call progamming: concerts, gatherings, and special events. The city will also be in charge of security for the Greenway, both by Boston police and privately contracted security firms, and the pact calls for the establishment of a 12-member "leadership council" that includes neighborhood representation. The document to be signed today is called a memorandum of understanding, and does not require 1 legislation, according to the lawyers who worked on it.

Senate President Robert E. Travaglini is expected to attend today's event, and State House aides and negotiators say he supports the establishment of the conservancy. However, House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran had been contemplating legislation to clarify, the issue of who owns the land — the state is supposed to hand it

over to the Thrnpike Authority, according to 1997 legislation — and possibly to line up additional state funding for the conservancy. Finneran did not return a telephone call seeki omit' lint yesterday.

The negotiations over the conservancy snagged on three key issues, participants said: how much money the new organization should start with, and where it should come from, as well as who got to make appointments to the conservancy board. In the end, the Thrnpike Authority received more control over the conservancy because it cause forward with promises of money.

There was also concern, participants in the negotiations said, over how the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy would be viewed — as a political entity or a truly independent, nonprofit orgainzation. The distinction Ls critical in terms of raising money.

The Greenway eta iservimey is a mix of the two. Technically, it will he a private nonprofit organization under the Internal Revenue Service classification 5o1(e)-3, the same tax-exempt status that applies to universities or charities.

Ant hOny Flint can he reached at flint@ gh ,be.cona

Pact reached on Greenway management'