Who's winning Long Island Bridge dispute? Boston and Quincy both claim advantage

QUINCY − In the six-year legal battle over Boston's planned reconstruction of the Long Island Bridge, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch is celebrating what he sees as a favorable preliminary order in the city's appeal of a key permit.

The state Department of Environmental Protection granted the permit, a state Chapter 91 draft waterways license, in August. Chapter 91 governs the use of coastal and inland waterways.

What does the new ruling by the MassDEP say?

The new order, issued by MassDEP presiding officer Margaret R. Stolfa, declares that the 1949 Chapter 91 license issued at the time of the bridge's original construction is void because Boston never recorded the license with the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, as required.

Boston will need a new Chapter 91 license and cannot claim that the reconstruction project is merely "maintenance and repair" of a previously licensed bridge, her ruling states.

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Stolfa also ordered, over the objection of MassDEP officials, that the status of the bridge's piers, which were kept in place when the bridge was demolished in 2015, will be an issue for adjudication at the appeal hearings scheduled for March 27 and 28.

Why is Quincy celebrating the ruling?

Quincy has resisted the rebuilding of the bridge from the outset, claiming it would harm tidelands and wetlands and create traffic congestion in the city's Squantum and North Quincy neighborhoods.

Quincy has pushed instead for a ferry service to and from the island, an alternative it says would enable Boston to restore a planned public health campus to the island in more cost effective and timely manner.

In the meantime, Quincy has done everything possible to tie up the permitting process in the courts.

"From Day 1, we were saying publicly, 'Look, there are a number of touchpoints on this project,' and we were going to hit every touchpoint and create every possible obstacle to keep Boston from building the bridge," Koch told The Patriot Ledger.

"We are quite pleased with this ruling because it definitely slows everything way down," he said. "I know a few months back it was a different ruling. The city of Boston was doing a little bit of a victory lap, and obviously that was a bit premature."

Boston says Quincy has nothing to celebrate in the ruling

Boston has characterized the new order as neither positive nor negative for either party.

"Official decisions on permits for Long Island will not come until a hearing in March," a Boston spokesperson wrote in a statement. "This order, which identifies issues for decision at the future hearing, does not impact the validity of the draft license issued by the State this year or the City of Boston's position in the appeal."

In 2018, when then-Mayor Marty Walsh announced Boston's plan to rebuild the bridge and restore public health services to the island, Boston applied for the Chapter 91 license with MassDEP.

Five years later, shortly after MassDEP granted, and Quincy appealed, the draft license, a surprising development occurred, according to a Boston spokesperson. The original Chapter 91 license issued in 1949 was found in MassDEP archives.

The discovery prompted Boston to argue that Quincy's appeal was moot because Boston already held the license, court filings say. Reconstruction of the bridge over the existing piers would constitute "maintenance and repairs" of an existing bridge, Boston argued, which would not require a new license.

However, because no record of the license can be found at the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, the hearing officer determined that the 1949 license is void and the appeal process will go forward as originally planned.

Boston officials say the ruling merely sends the proposal back to its status before the discovery of the 1949 license.

The spokesperson said Boston always expected the status of the existing piers to be an issue in the appeal hearings, given that Boston plans to build a new bridge on top of the piers.

Why does Boston claim to have had the advantage thus far in the appeal proceedings?

Boston officials say the city has had the advantage so far in the appeal process. They point to an order issued Nov. 10 by Stolfa that denied Quincy's motion to compel Boston to conduct more testing on the piers.

Quincy argues that the piers are in a state of advanced deterioration, which will eventually require Boston to conduct more intensive repairs than it has laid out in its plans. This additional work on the piers, Quincy says, would cause significant environmental harm to Quincy's water resources.

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Boston objected, saying more testing would not produce relevant evidence because Boston has already conducted enough testing. Boston also argued that the requested testing, which would entail drilling deep into the piers to extract core samples, would damage the piers.

Stolfa rejected Quincy's motion, writing that "Boston already performed extensive testing," according to her Nov. 10 report and order.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Quincy celebrates ruling in protracted dispute over Long Island Bridge