Locals redesigning Lechmere Square

Back when the region was awash in cash, a private developer proposed replacing the Lechmere Green Line stop with a fancy-shmancy indoor station as part of the T's plans to extend the line into Somerville and Medford. When that crashed and burned, the T proposed a simple Riverside-like station with no real way to get commuters to the station from across a six-lane highway.

Mark Jaquith outlines a proposal by a working group of local residents and merchants to build something better, even if not as grandiose as the old NorthPoint plan:

... A triangle between Cambridge Street and the O'Brien Highway divided by First Street where it extends into NorthPoint is what there is to work with. The group crafted a plan that incorporates substantial commercial development, some of it quite bold, into a new Lechmere Square that would anchor the eastern end of the city with a civic plaza, and a year-round public market and a seasonal farmers’ market.

This "transit-oriented" development would complement the Cambridge and First Street business districts, benefit residents, attract shoppers from the region, offset the DOT project cost, and add to the city’s commercial tax revenues.