New Bedford Settles With MBTA on Land Taken for South Coast Rail

NEW BEDFORD (WBSM) — The City of New Bedford has settled its dispute with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority over the taking of land for South Coast Rail, but the battle of rhetoric continues.

The City put out a press release Monday morning touting a $3.5 million settlement agreement for land the MBTA had taken by eminent domain for construction of the downtown commuter rail station at the Whale’s Tooth parking lot on Acushnet Avenue.

In April 2023, it was reported that the City had drafted a lawsuit against the MBTA disputing the amount it was paid in compensation after City-owned land was seized. The land was to be used to build the passenger rail station, a train layover site and for additional parking.

According to the City, there were five separate transactions between April 2020 and October 2021 in which the MBTA “paid the City and three related entities – Housing 70 Corporation (a municipal nonprofit organized in 1970 for the purpose of eliminating blight), the New Bedford Port Authority, and the New Bedford Redevelopment Authority – a total of $486,627 for eight acres of land next to the train station.”

Mayor Jon Mitchell argued that the price paid was far below the fair market value for the land and the City drafted a lawsuit, after four other lawsuits were brought against the MBTA by private landowners – including two in New Bedford near the Church Street station – who also claimed they were not compensated fairly for land taken by eminent domain.

However, the local delegation warned the City at the time not to go forward with the draft lawsuit, mainly because the lawmakers were concerned that the City’s complaint also called into question whether the MBTA actually had the legal authority to take the land, and that such a challenge could have held up the South Coast Rail project, which has already had several delays and now won’t begin service until next spring.

Eventually, the dispute went to arbitration, and the City accepted the arbitrator’s recommendation.

“Our position all along has been simple: New Bedford taxpayers deserve to be fairly compensated for the land taken by the MBTA,” Mitchell said in a release today. “This settlement achieves that goal, and I am grateful for the efforts of Governor (Maura) Healey and the MBTA to make it happen.”

However, Rep. Bill Straus (D-Mattapoisett), House Chair of the Joint Committee on Transportation and one of the legislators who “cautioned” Mitchell about the draft lawsuit, had a different take on the $3.5 million settlement, which he saw not as a win for the City of New Bedford but for the Commonwealth in its “lawful taking of property.”

“While I have little doubt that the city will try and polish up this outcome a bit, the win here is for public transportation and thanks goes directly to Maura Healey for holding firm and defending the state against the city's excessive claims,” Straus said in a post on his official Facebook page.

In a formal release, Straus said the City “relented” and “has given up on its core legal demands against the state for well over more than $10 million in damages and for reclaiming ownership from the Commonwealth of the Whale’s Tooth parking lot.”

“The city's 2023 threat of litigation would have put the accessibility of the station in jeopardy had the dispute not been resolved,” Straus said.

“The city has stepped back and will now accept a much-reduced land value, and damage amount of just over an additional $3 million; also, in section 4 of the settlement, the city is surrendering its questionable legal position that the MBTA had no legal authority to have taken the Whale’s Tooth land for public purposes beginning in 2020,” Straus said.