Framingham Bruce Freeman Rail Trail Piece Held Up In Negotiations

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Framingham holds the key to one of the last pieces of the planned 25-mile Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, but right now it's tied up in negotiations.

On Tuesday, Framingham Chief Operating Officer Thatcher Kezer updated the City Council on plans to acquire nearly 4 miles of former CSX railway that cuts across the north side of the city, key to completing a trail that begins near the Lowell-Chelmsford line.

Kezer said the talks are down to cost. A 2016 appraisal put the price of the land at $5.5 million, he said, but Framingham wants to negotiate that lower. On top of the negotiations, a deadline set by the federal Surface Transportation Board allowing the city to purchase the land will expire soon, and there's no agreement in place to extend it.

Framingham Council Chair George King asked Kezer to consider using eminent domain to acquire the land. That's a process that could take years, but a spokesperson for Mayor Yvonne Spicer said City Solicitor Christopher Petrini is looking into King's suggestion.

Today, the Bruce Freeman trail is complete from the Cross Point shopping plaza in Chelmsford through Concord at Powder Mill Road, about one mile shy of the Sudbury border.

Sudbury is in the midst of two big trail developments. Over the summer, MassDOT unveiled designs for the section linking Concord to near Route 20 in Sudbury. And in October, Town Meeting approved spending $650,000 to fund the design phase of that portion of the trail. Sudbury has also qualified for $9.6 million from the state Transportation Improvement Program to pay for construction, which could begin in two to three years. In November, Sudbury voters will decide if the town can borrow $820,500 to purchase the remainder of abandoned CSX land from Route 20 to the Framingham line.

The trail is named for former state lawmaker Bruce Freeman, who was a major advocate for turning the abandoned railway into a multi-use path before he died in 1986.

The proposed Framingham section of the trail would begin near Garden in the Woods and continue south past Hemenway Elementary, cross Edgell Road and Grove Street before ending at Route 9.

Talks about Framingham's role in the completion of the Bruce Freeman trail come as MassDOT plans to raise two bridges for the Cochituate Rail Trail, a multiuse path that will connect downtown Natick to Framingham's Saxonville area. That work begins on Sunday.