The Hyde Park Neighborhood Association met on Thursday, May 7 – as the official public comment period for City Hall’s proposed rezoning of Cleary Square entered its final week.

As the key part of Mayor Michelle Wu’s Squares + Streets initiative, the rezoning is designed – through the mapping of selected “S” districts – to increase the allowed height and density of new residential construction in Hyde Park’s downtown business district.

For the owners of real estate (both commercial and residential) in S+S rezoned districts, the value of their properties could very well increase. However, for small businesses renting space within S+S zoned commercial buildings, there could be an increased chance of displacement should their landlords decide to sell to developers, or to expand or rebuild on their own.

S+S development will also likely lead to the reduction in new ground floor business/retail/active use space by either eliminating it as a requirement in lower density S+S zones (S0-SC).

There is also no minimum parking requirement in the eight codified S+S zoning districts.

The Boston Planning & Development Agency (now the Planning Department) officially kicked off the Cleary Square S+S small area planning process in February 2024. Throughout, it has been marked by neighborhood pushback due to its lack of public engagement regarding which S+S zoning districts would be applied to Cleary Square, and where they would be mapped.

When the draft S+S zoning map for Cleary Square was finally released for public review on March 17, it was poorly received by nearly all of those who chose to speak at the Planning Department’s virtual public meeting the next day, and then at an in-person public meeting that it held on April 8. Chief issues were the map’s proposed seven-story (S4) zoning of the Cleary Square sections of Hyde Park Avenue and River Street, the lack of displacement protection for its primarily foreign-born business owners, the lack of provisions for traffic and parking congestion, and the lack of tree canopy to counterbalance anticipated new construction.

At those meetings, attendees were strongly advised to submit their comments via online portal to register their input. Since then, community-based efforts have been made to encourage this – including at Thursday’s night’s meeting, at which some of its time was reserved for that purpose.

S+S comments also became the main topic when Hyde Park Liaison Zoë Petty of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services gave her monthly update. This was triggered by her reading of the latest tally: 30 in support, 35 opposed, eight neutral, and 18 in support with specific concerns.

This led to a question of how three March 23 comments submitted by Milan Patel – an active developer with two Dana Avenue properties (which he noted in two of his three detailed comments in favor of residential development beyond what the S+S zoning districts currently allow) who is based on the North Shore – were weighted relative to those of local residents.

The question had been asked by HPNA member Elaine Coveney, who clarified that she had also submitted four-to-five comments in a row (which were also detailed, and in opposition to the S+S proposal for Cleary Square) due to the 1,000-character limit placed on each submission.

Petty – who does not work for the Planning Department – gave a questionable response.

“I think it would be biased to say, necessarily, they would be treated equally, when – in the public meetings – we’re talking to residents directly and, for the most part, I know your faces, the Planning Department knows your faces,” she put forward. “The same way you guys know there’s a developer, the Planning Department also knows there’s a developer. You get what I’m saying?”

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That statement did not obviously agree with what the Planning Department’s S+S team has been saying regarding the importance of submitting comments via the official online portal, and it led to an indefinite exchange between Petty, Coveney, and several other HPNA members regarding what is being counted, in terms of community feedback, and how it is being counted.

“It seems like there should be more analysis to see where things fall,” Coveney concluded.

Related to that, on the May 8 tally sheet accessed from the Planning Department’s Cleary Square S+S webpage, Coveney’s April 27 submissions appear as one entry, while Patel’s appear as three.

In her monthly report, HPNA President Mimi Turchinetz brought up another aspect of the draft S+S zoning map that has raised concern: its proposed rezoning of Hyde Park Avenue from West Street toward Cleary Square from two-family residential (2F-5000) to S1. The zoning change would allow for up to four floors of residential units, as well as small-scale commercial use.

That stretch of Hyde Park Avenue is informally referred to as “Victorian Row” because of the uniquely designed old houses that line it. “If you map this as S1, what you’re doing is you’re incentivizing people to sell their houses and demolish beautiful Victorian houses,” Turchinetz said of the implications of S+S zoning in that area as she interpreted them. “I don’t think that’s a great idea. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that really is the gateway to Cleary Square.”

The public comment period for the S+S draft zoning map and small area plan closes on Friday, May 15. To access the Cleary Square draft plan and zoning map and to submit comments, visit https://gvimes.link/hpsquaresmap

Comments can also be submitted to squaresandstreets@boston.gov.

For further information, contact Cleary Square S+S Project Manager Maya Kattler-Gold at Maya.Kattler-Gold@Boston.gov or call 617-918-4432.

The HPNA meets on the first Thursday of the month at 6:30 p.m. in the Hyde Park Municipal Building/BCYF (1179 River St.). For information, email hydeparkneighbors@gmail.com.