On March 18, after two years in the making, the Boston Planning Department held a community meeting to present its Squares+Streets (S+S) small area plan and zoning map for Cleary Square.

Greatly concerning to attendees was the fact that almost all of both sides of the block of River Street between Hyde Park Avenue and Harvard Avenue would allow for the development of up to seven stories of primarily residential space with no minimum parking requirement.

Even more concerning to them was the fact that the block’s commercial real estate is owned by Myer Dana and Sons, and there have been signals that it might be ready to sell. Under S+S zoning guidelines, such a transaction would make a seven-story, as-of-right development on either side of that relatively narrow block of River Street a real possibility.

It’s all part of a planning and zoning initiative championed by Mayor Michelle Wu that – at its core – is about making it easier for developers to build new high-density residential housing in neighborhood business districts that have easy access to public transportation.

S+S planning for Cleary Square kicked off in February 2024, and it was immediately met with pushback and suspicion. It has been touted as a community-led process seeking “consensus” but – until last Wednesday – any City-led interaction with the neighborhood about it had assiduously sidestepped public discussion regarding which of its six zoning districts would go where.

That obfuscation led to the formation, in the summer of 2024, of a community ad hoc committee that drafted a formal citizens petition to be submitted to the Boston Zoning Commission (BZC).

The petition prompted a year-long dialogue with the Planning Department regarding the committee’s concerns with potential effects of the proposed S+S zones in Cleary Square. This, in turn, led the Planning Department to change some of its S+S zoning language and to add two new zones (SC and S3-6) – informed by those the committee had prepared – to the original six.

Those discussions, however, were not public.

As this was going on, the ad hoc committee also held regular community S+S meetings and mapping/blocking workshops that were open to anyone interested, including those from the Planning Department. These community sessions culminated in a meeting this January during which 40-50 attendees voted on an S+S zoning map to be submitted to City Hall for discussion.

That lengthy history informed last Wednesday’s Planning Department meeting.

After frontloading the presentation with proposed improvements the S+S initiative has slated for some undetermined point in the future to assist Cleary Square’s small businesses, arts and culture, transportation, and open space and resiliency, the presenters then turned to the Planning Department’s S+S zoning map for the area – penciled in for adoption by the BZC on July 15.

Commenting on that block of River Street proposed for up to seven stories, Deputy Director of Zoning Kathleen Onufer described it as a “catalytic site,” likely to change in the near future that will also help drive the S+S initiative. “There’s potential at that site for, ultimately, 300-400 new units of housing, and at least 50-70 of them affordable in a market-rate development,” she said.

When ad hoc committee member and Hyde Park Board of Trade President Scott Batey raised the implications of a possible Myer Dana sale of that block and then later expanded on them, there were no objections or denials by either Onufer or Deputy Director of Comprehensive Planning Caitlin Coppinger – the meeting’s other main presenter.

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“This is shocking,” Batey said of the proposed zoning map as a whole. “The only word I can say is there seems to be a big disconnect over the two years of work that was done in our community – meeting with the City and on community meetings – and this proposal.”

Many of the questions raised – from one about a shadow study, to another regarding business and residential displacement, to those about a neighborhood traffic study – were repeatedly punted, by whoever fielded them, to the Article 80 large and small project review process that is utilized by the City for real estate development applications of greater than 20,000 square feet.

“The horse is kind of out of the barn when you go through the Article 80 process. No one’s going to turn down a project because it increases traffic. That just doesn’t happen,” ad hoc committee member and housing architect Tim Smith cautioned. “Once that process starts, it’s too late.”

Smith’s politely incredulous comments were in keeping with the tone and content of most.

Ad hoc committee member/Hyde Park Neighborhood Association President Mimi Turchinetz spoke in more detail about the discussions with the Planning Department. “Part of the reason that folks are surprised by some of this mapping is that you had said to us – in what one could argue was an agreement, although it wasn’t written down – that you wouldn’t do certain things.”

Regarding the Myer Dana block, she said that she had understood that it would be zoned for up to four stories, rather than seven. “We thought that we all agreed on that.” She had also thought that the Victorian section of Hyde Park Avenue approaching West Street wouldn’t be S+S zoned, and that higher density districts would be toward the edge of the planning area. “In some ways, the trust that we built… isn’t reflected in this map, and so that is a little challenging to me.”

Coppinger responded that the release of the proposed zones was “Step 1 in the process to start this conversation around what a potential zoning district map looks like here. This is not what it will ultimately end up looking like,” though she added that it may be similar. “We want to hear from everybody in Hyde Park to be able to start that process after we’ve heard from folks and we’ve tried to do our best to capture the goals of… what people want here in Cleary Square.”

Which sounded just like what the then-BPDA was saying two years ago about the same thing.

The next Planning Department meeting regarding its S+S plan and zoning map for Cleary Square will be on Wednesday, April 8 at 6 p.m. at the Municipal Building/BCYF (1179 River St.).

The 45-day comment period closes on Friday, May 1. To submit a comment and to view the draft plan, zoning map, and other information, visit www.bosplans.org/cleary-square.