Sparks are expected to fly tonight as Mattapan residents meet with MBTA officials about the siting of a Blue Hill Avenue rail station and abutters who remain opposed weigh their next steps. The Fairmount Line station, one of four additions to the commuter rail, is set to be located between the Blue Hill Avenue and Cummins Highway overpasses.

MBTA officials will be on hand at the 6:30 p.m. meeting at the Mattapan Public Library to lay out their arguments for why that location is the best one. A June 1 meeting was rescheduled due to heavy thunderstorms.

Abutters say they don’t expect to be swayed by the T’s arguments, noting that they are worried about increased traffic that could come with the station. “In the two years that we have been dealing with this issue, we have heard no loud request from members from this community that they feel strongly that another station is needed at this particular location, so close to the Morton St. station, given the impact constructing a station would have on the abutters and the immediate neighborhood,” said Barbara Fields, co-chair of the Woodhaven Culbert Regis Neighborhood Association.

The association, which represents about seven to eight streets in the area, will hold a meeting next week to consider options left to them, including legal action. “For us, this is not over,” Fields said. “We are not accepting of the fact of the siting of the station there. We feel it’s too detrimental to our neighborhood.”

MBTA officials hope to start construction on the site, which they say is the cheapest and easiest alternative, in May 2012. The station, which will provide a one-seat ride from Mattapan into downtown Boston, will have a single platform in the middle of the tracks instead of platforms on either side, a concession T officials made to minimize the impact of construction on abutters. No permanent land takings will be necessary. “Through our review, this station location makes the most sense,” MBTA General Manager Rich Davey told the Reporter in March, while also admitting in an earlier interview “there’s no perfect site.”

State Rep. Russell Holmes, a supporter of the project, said the station is crucial to the economic development of Mattapan Square. “I know what it’s like not to have a station,” he said, recounting the frustration he felt growing up without a train into downtown Boston. “It’s a big deal.” He said he is pushing for mediation funds for the residents, such as providing abutters’ homes with better windows instead of a sound barrier to dull the noise of the trains coming and going.

Holmes was one of several local lawmakers who met in state Sen. Jack Hart’s Beacon Hill office in March to discuss the siting with top transportation officials and local residents, including Fields. Lawmakers left that meeting split, with Holmes and state Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry supporting the project, and Hart and City Councillor Rob Consalvo unconvinced the T is picking the best location. Rep. Forry is married to Reporter managing editor Bill Forry.

Three other Fairmount Line stations are already under construction: Four Corners/Geneva Ave., Newmarket by the South Bay Shopping Center, and Talbot Ave., near Codman Square.
The 9.2-mile line stretches from the Readville neighborhood of Hyde Park to South Station in Boston’s Financial District.