On June 17, the Boston Planning Department (BPD) hosted a community meeting regarding its Squares + Streets (S+S) planning and zoning initiative, as proposed for Hyde Park’s Cleary Square. Its purpose was to go over the changes to its draft S+S zoning map and small area plan.

It was slated as a closeout meeting, with the Planning Department’s stated intention to submit the S+S proposals to the Boston Planning & Development Agency Board for approval in July, after which the map will go to the Boston Zoning Commission for adoption in August.

However, by the meeting’s conclusion, that timetable seemed less certain.

The S+S process for Cleary Square has been going on for about the last two-and-a-half years – stretching about a year-and-a-half longer than intended, seemingly because of its contentiousness.

At the heart of this conflict has been the rezoning that is the definitive part of Squares + Streets. Although the planning and zoning initiative’s goal is to support selected neighborhood downtowns by establishing policy recommendations to improve their arts & culture, open space, transportation, small businesses, housing, and land use – the only part of it that appears to be actually moving forward in any sort of scheduled way is the rezoning of those areas.

This rezoning aims for residential development of much greater height and density (with no parking minimums), feared to be at the expense of the existing commercial footprint. When the draft S+S zoning map for Cleary Square was released on March 17, seven-story districts abounded, and some abutting residential sections were also proposed for higher density mixed-use zoning.

This did not sit well with many in the community, who pushed back against it – primarily in the form of comments submitted to the Planning Department and outreach to elected officials.

In response, the Planning Department updated its map by reducing the seven-story S4 districts to six-story S3-6 districts, and by removing its proposed S+S zones from most of those abutting residential sections. It also made several other more spot-specific zoning changes.

That noted, the updated map, small area plan (77 pages), and the comments and responses (124 pages) had not been made available for public review until within a day of the meeting, providing little chance for those interested to familiarize themselves with the documents.

Approximately 60 attendees filtered into the main hall of the Municipal Building, and about an hour-and-a-quarter of the meeting was reserved for Q&A, with many lining up to speak.

District 5 City Councilor Enrique Pepén was among them, and he advocated for an extension of the S+S approval schedule for Cleary Square. “We have to give the residents time – including our teams – to look at [the updated map and plan],” he said in support of his position.

He also spoke in favor of better addressing the community’s transportation/traffic concerns prior to the approval of the S+S package. “That is a topic that I really want to get right,” he said. “I do think that we need to start bringing the Transportation Department into the conversation.”

That comment was the result of what was a major Q&A talking point. The community has long wanted a comprehensive traffic study to be done in Hyde Park. Since S+S – and the anticipated influx of Cleary Square residents and vehicles because of it – those calls have grown louder.

This simmering topic likely had the flames turned up under it when Deputy Director of Zoning Kathleen Onufer responded to an early question about traffic congestion in Cleary Square (specifically, the intersection of River Street and Hyde Park Avenue) by stating that the Boston Transportation Department “is taking a look at” traffic signal timing to alleviate the problem.

Advertisement

That intersection (including the Business Street/Gordon Avenue intersection on the opposite side of the River Street Bridge) is so congested that local drivers do what they can to avoid it, and Onufer’s response was brought up at several points as an inadequate solution to a much larger problem.

The topic eventually boiled over when Onufer was asked about a comprehensive neighborhood traffic study being done as a component of S+S, to which she repeated the now standard response of such studies being required as part of the Article 80 process for project applications.

Her answer was met with a rising chorus of loud, full-throated booing.

People also kept asking about how the small area plan’s quality-of-life recommendations would actually come to pass. They were referred to the City’s (limited) budgets, private development mitigation agreements, partnerships, and other departments and branches of government – all of which hammered home the fact that the only thing now planned for S+S in Cleary Square (aside from the installation of some crosswalks) is its development-friendly rezoning.

The meeting itself could easily be seen as representative of the last two-and-a-half years, with the same reiterated community concerns – all of which have been repeatedly argued by opponents would be exacerbated by the new zoning – responded to by the Planning Department in ways that did little to assuage the community.

Pepén also commented on the zoning changes, which he and State Representative Rob Consalvo (14thSuffolk) had pushed for (and which there were still questions about), emphasizing that it was because of the community letting them know what it wants for Cleary Square. It was a telling remark, considering that S+S had been heavily touted – two-and-a-half years ago – as a consensus-based collaboration between the neighborhood and the Planning Department.

It was an idea that Pepén alluded to. “I want to make sure… that there’s truly the sense of compromise, that there is truly the sense of understanding of what it means for this neighborhood,” he said of his goal for the Cleary Square S+S process moving forward.

Near the meeting’s end, Hyde Park Neighborhood Association President Mimi Turchinetz requested that the Planning Department postpone bringing the Cleary Square plan and zoning map to the BPDA Board until September. As of yet, no scheduling change has been announced.

To access the proposed Cleary Square small area plan and map and the public comments, go to: https://gvimes.link/clearysquares

Comments can still be submitted by filling out the form at the bottom of that page or by sending an email to Maya Kattler-Gold at maya.kattler-gold@boston.gov.