As opposition to Mayor Michelle Wu's plan to renovate White Stadium for a professional women's soccer team continues, construction workers were on the ground Tuesday to begin demolishing the stadium.
Neighbors of White Stadium in Franklin Park were informed in a city email last week that demolition of the 1940s-era stadium currently used by Boston Public School students would begin the week of Jan. 19. Workers will be removing hazardous materials from the grandstands, preparing the site, and removing trees, according to the email.
The demolition phase is expected to last for two months, the city said, primarily between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. during the week with some weekend activity. The renovation project overall is expected to continue through this winter.
According to development plans, the city will demolish the East Grandstand, which has fire damage, the track and field areas, and site utilities. The proposal plans to keep the curving clamshell frontispiece while demolishing the West Grandstand concrete bleacher seats, stadium foundation, and concrete floors and columns.
Wu partnered with BOS Nation FC, the NWSL women's soccer team, to renovate the dilapidated stadium, and announced 10-year, public-private lease with them last month. The team, who is covering half of the costs of the renovations, are expecting to kick off their season in March of next year.
The city says more BPS students will be able to use White Stadium after the renovation than can currently utilize the facilities, while some football games that overlap with the NWSL games will be relocated.
However, controversy has picked up against the renovation plan, which was allowed to proceed by a judge in Superior Court last year. City Councilors Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn have both publicly criticized the renovation after news broke in December that the city's estimated $50 million contribution would reach at least $91 million.
A day after demolition begins, Boston City Council is set to hold a Government Accountability, Transparency, and Accessibility Committee hearing to discuss "growing concerns" about the renovation, according to the meeting order, cosponsored by the majority of councilors on Jan. 8.
In a statement, Murphy called the demolition a "reckless rush" that "not only silences the voices of residents but also undermines the authority and role of the City Council to provide oversight, ensure financial responsibility, and advocate for the people of Boston."
The Franklin Park Defenders, the group that filed an ongoing lawsuit to halt the project which includes the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, said the demolition beginning this week will remove 145 trees.
"For months, members of the communities surrounding Franklin Park have wanted to provide BPS student-athletes the up-to-date athletic facilities at White Stadium they have long deserved," Emerald Necklace President Karen Mauney-Brodek said in a statement, "without displacing the football program, paving over two tennis courts and acres of public parkland, cutting down 145 trees, and enduring the many other downsides of building a massive 11,000-seat professional sports stadium in a public park."
Wu's administration only learned of Wednesday's meeting last week, a city spokesperson said.
"Last month, the City signed and shared an extensively detailed lease agreement that legally codifies the financial, community usage, and open space protections that were carefully negotiated and shaped by community feedback through more than 60 public meetings over nearly 18 months," the spokesperson said. "Throughout this public process and during the extensive permitting process vetted through six separate boards and commissions, the timeline has been clear that demolition would begin soon after a lease was signed."