The Inner Belt District is a 126 acre (0.50990436 km²) district within Somerville

Somerville, Massachusetts

Somerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located just north of Boston. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 75,754 and was the most densely populated municipality in New England. It is also the 17th most densely populated incorporated place in...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, named after the proposed Inner Belt Highway

Interstate 695 (Massachusetts)

The Inner Belt in Boston was a planned six-lane, limited-access highway that would have run through parts of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville.-History:...

. It is bounded by Interstate 93

Interstate 93

Interstate 93 is an Interstate Highway in the New England section of the United States. Its southern terminus is in Canton, Massachusetts, in the Boston metropolitan area, at Interstate 95; its northern terminus is near St. Johnsbury, Vermont, at Interstate 91...

, Route 28, and the Lowell

Lowell Line

The Lowell Line is a railroad line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running north from Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts. Originally built as the Boston and Lowell Railroad, and later operated as part of the Boston and Maine Railroad's Southern Division, the line was one of the first railroads in...

 and Fitchburg

Fitchburg Line

The Fitchburg Line is an MBTA line that runs from Boston's North Station to Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The line is along the tracks of the former Fitchburg Railroad, which was a railroad line across northern Massachusetts, United States, leading to and through the Hoosac Tunnel. It is one of the...

 rail lines. Innerbelt Road runs through the center of the Inner Belt District intersecting with 3rd Avenue to connect to the MBTA maintenance facility. This area includes many different businesses, including warehouse and distribution centers, regional marketing and maintenance facilities, MBTA/Amtrak

Amtrak

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...

 offices, financial services, retail stores, and hotels.

History

• Much of this area was occupied by the Asylum for the Insane built in 1811, later renamed the McLean Hospital
  McLean Hospital
  McLean Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.It is noted for its clinical staff expertise and ground-breaking neuroscience research...
  
  , which moved to Belmont in 1895.
• In 1948, this area was proposed to be the northern terminus of the Inner Belt Expressway, including an interchange with the Western Expressway.
• In the early 1960s, Massachusetts Department of Public Works (DPW) commissioner, John A. Volpe
  John A. Volpe
  John Anthony Volpe was the 61st and 63rd Governor of Massachusetts and a U.S. Secretary of Transportation.-Early life and education:Volpe was born in 1908 in Wakefield, Massachusetts. He was the son of Italian immigrants Vito and Filomena , who had come from Abruzzo to Boston's North End in 1905;...
  
  , sought to terminate the project realizing that the state would not be able to come up with the necessary funding.
• In 1971, due to intense protests from community activists, the project was officially canceled.
• In 2001, the Strategic Planning and Community Development (SPCD) board drafted the Inner Belt Planning Study, to look at how Somerville could benefit more from the Inner Belt area.

Green Line Extension

As part of the extension of the MBTA's Green Line

Green Line (MBTA)

The Green Line is a streetcar system run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in the Boston, Massachusetts area of the United States. It is the oldest line of Boston's subway, which is known locally as the 'T'. The Green Line runs underground downtown and on the surface in outlying...

 into Somerville, two stations - Brickbottom and Washington Street - have been proposed near the Inner Belt District. City planners expect that they will stimulate economic growth.

Soccer Stadium

The Kraft Group has discussed the possibility of building a soccer stadium for the New England Revolution

New England Revolution

The New England Revolution is an American professional association football club based in Foxborough, Massachusetts which competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada...

 in the Inner Belt District. Construction and operation of a stadium would create jobs and stimulate commercial revenue, but the facility would take up a great deal of the Inner Belt District while sitting vacant much of the year.

Businesses Currently Located in the Inner Belt

• ABC Moving Services Inc
• Aldelphia Business Solutions
• Autodesk Inc
  Autodesk
  Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
  
  
• Boston Space Co
• Centro Presente Inc.
• Colospace Inc
• Dream Com
• Endeca Technologies
• Escription
• Level 3 Communications
• Net Temps‎
• Nu Domain Inc
• Triumvirate Environmental, Inc.
• United Parcel Service
  United Parcel Service
  United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...
  
  
• VDA Productions
• Zambit Technologies