The Boston Herald reported that Suffolk Construction CEO and city power broker John Fish is looking to build a private helipad next to the company’s Roxbury headquarters, a plan that is riling nearby residents who say they’ve been left in the dark.
Suffolk officials quietly filed the plans with the city last year, pitching a proposal that would put the pad in a Kemble Street parking lot adjacent to the company’s office. The move, they say, would serve the company’s “evolving transportation needs” in the largely commercial area. Company officials are slated to make their case to the city’s Zoning Board of Appeal March 6, but only after their original hearing was scrapped yesterday. A spokeswoman for the board cited a “clerical error” for scheduling the hearing and promised that Suffolk would have to go through a “full community process” before presenting to the board.
But the plan had already caught some by surprise. State lawmakers who represent the area said yesterday they weren’t aware of it before a Herald reporter asked them about it, and Steve Fox, chairman of the South End Forum, said residents there hadn’t gotten any notification of the hearing before it was deferred to March at Suffolk’s request.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh downplayed the controversy that has surrounded helipad proposals in Boston, but says he’ll leave the latest debate — this time over a private pad at Suffolk Construction’s headquarters — to the neighborhood to decide. “I think this conversation — helipads — we get all so tied up over it,” Walsh told reporters yesterday. “I think it’s a mode of transportation that other cities use and there’s no controversy around it. But I think Suffolk will reach out to the community and talk to the community,” he added. “… That’s how we operate in the city. If the community is fine with it, we’ll see with it moving forward.”
“We had absolutely no outreach, no understanding, no knowledge, no nothing. The first thing that comes to my mind is, why do you need a heliport? What’s the frequency?” Fox said. “Given the location of their headquarters, the flyovers are clearly going to be a concern for us.” A Suffolk spokesman said the company has been weighing the helipad to make getting to its New York office more “efficient,” and said it intends to “engage the community in an open discussion.”
“We are still in the early stages of exploring our options,” spokesman Dan Antonellis said. Sue Sullivan, executive director of the Newmarket Business Association — which counts Suffolk as one of its members — said the company briefed local businesses on its plan at least twice in the last six months. The association gave the proposal preliminary approval.
Sullivan said company officials told them they planned to use the helipad a “couple times a week” and while some businesses raised questions about noise and interference with development, she said she found no one with “a serious objection to it.” “Given the investment that Suffolk has made in the area, I don’t see them acting in a way that would be detrimental to the development that is going on,” Sullivan said.
Private helipads remain rare in Boston, with only about a half-dozen — including four hospitals — registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, according to federal records. The plan evoked the heated debate last year over the state’s proposal to build a public heliport in the Seaport, after promising one to General Electric as part of a $120 million incentive package. GE ultimately said it didn’t need one anymore, and a city councilor said last September that the plan was “dead.”
