Beverly's National Grid Transmission Line Approved, With Conditions

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly City Council Chair Julie Flowers called on National Grid to rebuild a trust broken among city residents and vowed strong oversight of the long-debated regional transmission reliability project before councilors voted to approve a grant of location for the new transmission lines Thursday night.

Councilors added a series of conditions — including the formation of a citizens' advisory committee to oversee the construction — during the three-hour public meeting before the 7-1 vote to approve the project.

Ward 2 Councilor Estelle Rand was the lone councilor to vote against the project, though many others expressed frustration in the path that led them to Thursday's vote with Ward 3 Councilor Steven Crowley calling it "an unfortunate situation" and Ward 4 Councilor Scott Houseman saying that granting the location with conditions was "the better of two bad options."

Flowers lamented the lack of a "full and robust public process" from the start of the project in 2018 and said: "The hard work is now before us and that is continuing to hold National Grid and our city to the standards we have talked about (Thursday night)."

"This is an invitation to rebuild some of that trust by adhering to the conditions imposed," she said before the vote, "by working to create a greener and cleaner future, to valuing residents as more than just rate-payers and to go above and beyond to ensure a commitment to forward-thinking about health and human safety, environment care and stewardship and to work to build and respect the relationship with the citizens' advisory committee."

"Hearing without defensiveness as much as possible the truth — the truth — that there is a lack of trust and see this as an invitation of what could be in leaning into this and working together."

National Grid officials pledged to explore carbon offsets of the fossil fuel that will be used in the project at the continued prodding of Houseman and concerned residents.

Mayor Mike Cahill said the city and National Grid will partner to repave "sidewalk to sidewalk" all streets that will be affected by the transmission line installation.

"You have told us that we are going to be getting a white-glove treatment in our neighborhoods," Crowley said toward National Grid representatives, "and you're going to be keeping an eye on the neighbors and helping them out. The expectation is that.

"I ask you to fulfill the obligations that have been set forward to make sure this gets done safely and with as little disturbance for our neighbors as possible."

More on the four-year project process can be found here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)