The Boston Globe
Globe Northwest, p. N1
By Dave Bushnell
Globe Correspondent
A legal dispute that has been simmering since the end of 2001 among the towns of Littleton, Harvard, and Boxborough over the number of vehicles entering and exiting part of Cisco Systems' new corporate park in Boxborough appears to have been settled.
Early this week, Harvard officials approved an out-of-court agreement that limits the number of cars that may use Littleton County Road in Harvard and Whitcomb Avenue in Littleton to reach the rear of Cisco's property.
Construction of the three office buildings is nearly complete. An undisclosed number of Cisco employees from other company locations are expected to relocate to the Boxborough campus in the second quarter of this year as part of the first group to move.
Littleton selectmen are expected to give their blessing to the agreement by next Tuesday, after giving residents who live near the Cisco buildings an opportunity to review the document, said Paul Glavey, chairman of the Board of Selectmen.
Glavey's counterpart in Boxborough, David Birt, said Monday that he couldn't comment on the agreement, because he hadn't yet been given a copy.
A Boston-based real estate consultant to Cisco, Scott Ross, also declined to comment on Monday, preferring to wait, he said, until everyone concerned has had a chance to read and approve the agreement.
Meantime, Harvard Town Administrator Paul Cohen said, "We're all pleased that we've come to a satisfactory resolution that addresses the concerns of the two towns and Cisco. We are also assured that the safety and condition of Littleton County Road will be maintained."
A key provision of the settlement, Cohen and others said, is that the number of vehicles entering or leaving Cisco's Boxborough property via Littleton County Road is limited to 295 per hour on weekdays. The initial permit given Cisco by the Town of Boxborough was for 550 vehicles an hour.
The Boxborough permit prompted Littleton and Harvard selectmen to file a complaint in Massachusetts Land Court on Dec. 21, 2001, against the Boxborough Planning Board over Cisco's office park plans and, specifically, traffic mitigation issues.
That board gave its approval in 2001 to a Cisco office complex that would eventually have 10 buildings and 1.9 million square feet of office space. The corporate park's main entrance is off Swanson Road in Boxborough, near Route 111 and Interstate 495.
Then last summer, officials from the three towns and Cisco representatives, plus lawyers for all parties, began to negotiate in earnest. Littleton and Harvard officials hammered away at their main point: that the narrow, rural Littleton County and Whitcomb roads should be protected from excessive use by Cisco office workers.
"We want something on paper that protects the community if traffic [from the Cisco complex] increases significantly over the years," Glavey, the Littleton selectman, said last July.
It had been estimated that some 5,500 cars a day would use the two entrances of the office park.
Cisco closed on the purchase of the property in July 2000. Construction of the three buildings started later that year, only to be halted in April 2001 because of the recession and losses posted by Cisco.
Then in late 2001, work resumed on the three buildings and landscaping designs. Meanwhile, the company spent $7.5 million on local improvements, most of that for new ramps off I-495, new traffic signals, and the widening of Route 111 and Swanson Road. Cisco had 750 workers in a former NEC Technology building off 111.
Cisco has said it has invested about $150 million in its Boxborough properties.
Dave Bushnell can be reached at [email protected]
The Boston Globe,
Globe Northwest, p. N1,
January 9, 2003
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