Superior Court docket decide clears the trail for Boston’s White Stadium professional soccer plan, guidelines it doesn’t violate state legislation

A Superior Court docket decide has cleared the best way for the Metropolis of Boston to proceed with its public-private plan to rehab White Stadium for a brand new professional soccer crew by ruling that the $200 million mission doesn’t violate state legislation for parkland protections.

Suffolk Superior Court docket Choose Mathew Nestor launched his 18-page ruling Wednesday in favor of the defendants, the Metropolis of Boston and Boston Unity Soccer Companions, which owns the skilled ladies’s soccer crew that’s set to take the pitch at a redeveloped White Stadium in Franklin Park in March 2026.

“Notwithstanding the testimony from nearby residents, there is simply inadequate evidence that the everyday use of the property evinces an unequivocal intent to dedicate the property as public parkland,” Nestor wrote. “I conclude, therefore, that the stadium parcel is not protected by Article 97.”

The plaintiffs, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and a gaggle of 20 park neighbors, had alleged of their lawsuit that the town and Boston Unity’s proposed use would privatize protected parkland in violation of Article 97 of the state structure.

Article 97, authorized by voters in 1972, requires two-thirds approval from the state Legislature for different makes use of for land and easements taken or acquired for conservation functions.

Nestor disagreed after listening to proof throughout a three-day trial final month, in a ruling that gives a serious victory for Mayor Michelle Wu, who has championed the public-private funding as important to upgrading a dilapidated facility for Boston Public Colleges student-athletes, who will share use of it with the professional crew.