Join us to provide comments on Dorchester Bay City's plans for public benefits in open space and climate resiliency.
This is a terrific opportunity to hear their plans, and provide constructive comments on our hopes, wants and needs for a project with extensive opportunity for public benefits.
Great public spaces make a great city, but they don’t happen by accident. They require careful thought, hard work, attention to detail and perseverance. They also require your participation!
Click here to register for the February 7, 2023 Public Meeting from 6:00pm-8:00pm
Can’t attend live? Submit comment letters here.
To request live interpretation at the Listening Session please email Caitlin.Coppinger@Boston.gov no later than 5 days prior to the meeting date.
About the Dorchester Bay City Project
The 36-acre site is designed to create a balanced neighborhood with a mix of uses that includes affordable housing and prioritizes an inclusive ground floor experience, new pedestrian and bike access, multiple open spaces with different programming opportunities, and flexible retail spaces to create opportunity and support small, local and MBE/WBE owned businesses.
The Project transforms underutilized urban sites currently occupied by obsolete office buildings and surface parking lots -- marked by a dearth of trees, open space and pervious areas -- into a vibrant and inclusive, transit-oriented, resilient and sustainable mixed-use community that is welcoming to all. Consistent with the goals of the Columbia Point Master Plan, the project creates:
· A system of pedestrian and bike-friendly streets that connect people to transit resources, open space resources, and each other
· A mix of buildings where people can work, live, and play
· Multi-modal, improved access to major open spaces in the area and the resources of Dorchester Bay
· Diversity of housing types can attract individuals, couples, and families from many backgrounds
· Diverse and inclusive retail available to all
Dorchester Bay City focuses on the importance of creating a development that will knit together nearby neighborhoods isolated by the site’s current surface parking lots and allow those neighborhoods to enjoy improved access to the water, park, beach, and Harborwalk, which define this community.
By raising the Project Site to an elevation of 21.5-feet± BCB and creating a raised ridge at 22.7- feet BCB extending from the southern boundary of the site northward to Day Boulevard, these resiliency improvements both assure that the Project can withstand future sea level rise and protect the surrounding neighborhood from potential flooding events.
With $5,000,000 in funding for a flood protection on DCR Land adjacent to the Harbor Point Apartments as specified in the Climate Ready Dorchester Plan (provided during Phase One to DCR), the Project also carefully considers the needs of our neighbors and the community beyond our site boundaries. This includes completing an evaluation of the connection between the Project, DCR's Dorchester Shores Reservation behind Carson Beach, and the future Moakley Park flood protection systems. In total, approximately $18.5 will be invested in off-site resiliency efforts.
The Project employs sustainable design principles to reduce the project’s carbon footprint and contribute to the state and city’s 2050 carbon-free goals by converting 36 acres of asphalt park lots into urban mix-use developments near transit with various open and green spaces, a new stormwater management system. These new open spaces with approximately 1,000 new trees will prevent the urban heat island effect while contributing to the city’s Urban Forest Plan and Heat Resilience Solutions for Boston Plan initiatives.
The Project’s site-level and building-level sustainability design principles will reduce energy demand generated by buildings and GHG emissions. At a site level, the developers committed to SITES Certification and LEED ND Gold Certification design standards. Building level commitments include all residential buildings to be designed at a minimum of LEED Gold and 25% of Commercial buildings (except ground floor retail) to be designed at LEED Platinum, and 75% of Commercial buildings to be designed at minimum LEED Gold design standards.
Additionally, the project will include approximately 3,700 indoor bicycle parking spaces for buildings and 476 outdoor public parking spaces to further encourage people to use sustainable transportation modes.
