Date submitted: 2/3/2024

Pier 5 comments submitted via website form  Date submitted: 2/3/2024 “Re: Historic Head of Boston Harbor Pier 5 Park as a public open space with maritime recreation and education (Courageous Sailing Center) To Boston Planning and Development Agency, Att.: BPDA Natalie Deduck, “Report of Findings Pier 5 Waterfront Facilities -Inspection and Assessment Jan 4, 2024” The Pier 5 Association remains committed to retaining an historic Head of Boston Harbor Pier 5 Park as a public open space with maritime recreation and education (Courageous Sailing Center) for the people of the Boston Community. The Historic Head of the Harbor at Pier 5 is a site that belongs to the public: This historic, climate resilient, geographically and structurally significant location must be elevated to the status it requires and deserves. Perhaps Pier 5 Association could host a community meeting with BPDA to bring our historic knowledge, expertise and vision to the table so that 50 years of neglect will be cured with a thoughtful and public progress which restores Pier 5 for the public to enjoy with maritime recreation and education at this critical site of Boston’s history ––Pier 5 Park and Courageous Sailing Center. The “”Report of Findings Pier 5 Waterfront Facilities- Inspection and Assessment Phase was presented on On Jan 4,2024. Please listen to the people as the BPDA and Foth Engineers proceed with the next phases of this Contract. Community Participation / Design Criteria / Schematic Design / Selection Criteria: Community Participation is essential in the setting of the Design Criteria and should precede Schematic Design Development for the three Design Options outlined by the BPDA in the Foth contract. We need to know how the process for this next Phase will be structured; the community should not have to comment in a vacuum or into nebulous “Word Clouds”, as opposed to fully considered thoughts concerning the Design Criteria. Schematic Design Phase: (per Foth Contract) 1.) Safe public access. (Basic Design Criteria for all options) 2.) Public Park and Open Space with Sailing Center. (Assumed to be a primary program option) 3.) Demolition and complete removal of the pier to create an open water sheet for future development. (This does not include a program. As it is totally non-specific, it is too open ended to provide schematic design.) Design Criteria: 1. dictates water dependent use only on piers over open water. Water dependent uses are inclusive of public open space for viewing and safe public water access, sailing and boating,

1. maritime instruction / education, maritime history, swimming, fishing, marine botany / biology such as oyster up-wells, botanical floating pods, floating facility plug-ins, etc. 

2. Pier 5 and the Historic Head of the Harbor should not be privatized. This historic site belongs to the people; therefore privatization would rule out marinas, in addition to condos and hotels which are not water dependent uses per . 

3. The early MA Historic Commission submissions proposed that the U.S. Navy Transfer Documents state that the Pier configuration be maintained. Design Criteria: The Historic Outline of Pier 5 should be memorialized in a responsible design for any of the three options. 

4. To memorialize the Historic Outline would require the preservation of the end of Pier 5 projecting the public into the Boston Harbor. This is also important to any park or pedestrian type of use. 

5. Respect for the Harborwalk, the security of the sea wall, potential sea level rise proposals and pedestrian access to the pier and safe access to the water would dictate maintaining a spacious unobstructed pier base section connecting to the Harborwalk. Pier 5 has limited access for utilities and no access for vehicles. The Harborwalk area at Pier 5 has experienced sinkholes and was the site of historic cannon batteries and storage pits. 

6. The “”Vista Easements of 1976” preserving views and vistas from the Head of the Harbor at Pier 5 up the Harbor and across to the City should be maintained as a primary Design Criteria (See: Boston Harbor Walk- Pier 5 “”1976 Visual Easements” Impact Images). 

7. A Connection between the Head-of-the-Harbor pier’s harbor end and the pier’s land base would also be required for defining and memorializing the historic pier outline. Connection by the WWll sections to either side or by the older center section is a question determined based on the specific design option’s Schematic Design…especially in providing for the Sailing Center activities. 

8. A resulting C or T shape, also proposed in the Foth Report, would provide an infrastructure design format for any of the three design options. However, the C shape should face toward Pier 4 and existing Courageous Sailing Center facilities to give a wider water sheet and a more maneuverable basin for the CSC boats. The East side of Pier 5 as the preserved spine would also provide City and Harbor views and vistas from the public access park walk. (C shape should not face towards Pier 6, implying a privatizing marina use and sole source control of harbor frontage by a single entity.) 

9. The Charlestown community voices are consistently in support of a Pier 5 Park to celebrate this magnificent waterfront vista from an important historic panoramic vantage point to see the Boston Harbor where British war ships lobbed cannons on Bunker Hill, The Old North Church where Paul Revere saw “One if by land; two if by sea lanterns, and the first monument in our country, the Bunker Hill Monument. The Battle of Bunker Hill Battle will be celebrated in 2025, and the 400th Anniversary will be in 2030. There is perhaps no American Revolution site with more prominence and meaning. 

10. Pier 5 has been in the past and should be restored to be a “”public gathering space”” with maritime recreational activities such as the Courageous Sailing Center and other public recreation would offer. Prior to being allowed to become blighted, Pier 5 served all of Bostonas a public open space with beautiful vistas down the harbor. Many festivals, Sail Boston, Chowderfests were held at Pier 5, attracting tourists and residents, in 2026, Sail Boston returns. On numerous occasions the need for this type of public openspace has been the community’s concern, especially with the expanding Charlestown population. 

11. The fourth largest public housing development in the country, Bunker Hill Housing, is currently being demolished and expanded. The population there, a mere few blocks from Pier 5, will increase from 2500 residents with 15 acres of green open space to only 2.7 acres of green open space available for 6200 residents. The need for public open space at Pier 5 is necessary for the public welfare and social equity. These two acres at Pier 5 are critical for increasing the low resident to open space ratio in Charlestown. 

12. All relevant Building Codes, ADA, Coastal Zone Management and Flood Plain Management Regulations, Police, Fire Codes, Homeland Security (re LNG tankers 300’ off Pier) advisories, Environmental Impact Statements, etc. are Design Criteria. 

Pier 5 Association requests a meeting with the BPDA and Foth LLC to discuss how the Community input gathered by Pier 5 Association and our predecessors of over 25 years should inform the Schematic Design phase of this study. The broader community stakeholders need to be at the table. This is critical for meaningful community engagement, setting Design Criteria, establishing transparency, and providing a democratic process for the public realm improvement for both now and for future Boston-Charlestown residents and tourists who visit Charlestown, the birthplace of the American Revolution. 

Pier 5 Association remains committed to retaining an historic Head of Boston Harbor Pier 5 Park as a public open space with maritime education and recreation (Courageous Sailing Center) for the people of the Boston Community.”