A comprehensive planning study in Glover’s Corner launched last week, kicking off a Boston Planning and Redevelopment Agency effort to reassess and rezone the largely industrial areas around Freeport Street and Dorchester Avenue.

The planning agency (BPDA) formally announced the PLAN: Dorchester, Glover’s Corner Question Campaign on Monday, Jan. 23. This marks the first phase of the planning process, in which neighborhood stakeholders are encouraged to offer feedback to help shape the initial scope and design of the study area.

“Boston is experiencing an unprecedented amount of growth, and while this growth holds tremendous promise, change can also be difficult if it is not well planned and coordinated,” said Mayor Martin Walsh in a statement. “That’s why we embarked on a new approach to neighborhood planning that relies on robust community engagement and collaboration.  I look forward to working alongside community members in Glover’s Corner in the coming months as we create a shared vision for the future of this neighborhood.”

The Glover’s Corner study was announced in the mayor’s 2015 State of the City speech. Since then, planners completed the BPDA stage of a South Boston planning study along Dorchester Avenue and rezoned the South Boston neighborhood. Now in the crosshairs: Glover’s Corner, the continuing Jamaica Plain/Roxbury plan, and a study in Dudley Square.

Planners are hoping for input before a first round of public workshops and meetings, which BPDA officials expect to start on the Dorchester project in late February or early March.
Similar planning studies generally take nine or ten months, BPDA officials say, though there is variation depending on community feedback.

Residents, business owners, and other stakeholders are able to submit questions by filling out a form at the BPDA website. Submissions are categorized into transportation and mobility, jobs and business, environment and climate change, housing and affordability, neighborhood character, and parks and public space.

The study area has “preliminary boundaries,” centered on around Freeport Street and Dorchester Avenue near the Savin Hill Red Line station, BPDA deputy director for community planning Lara Mérida told the Reporter in early January. Agency officials estimate that Clam Point, Hancock, Bowdoin Geneva, Fields Corner, and Savin Hill would all be potentially impacted by the study and may want to offer input in the early stages.

Elected officials and community members will be able to recommend members for an advisory group, signed off on by the mayor.

“Community discussions will focus on guidelines for future development and open space, as well as strategies to enhance existing businesses and residential communities,” the BPDA statement said. Workshops, site visits, and events are planned for the coming months.

The Glover’s Corner question campaign is modeled after the “Go Boston 2030” Question Campaign, which drew from over 5,000 questions to identify transportation priority areas.

Increasing population pressures bolster the need for these planning processes, officials say. The Walsh administration has called for 53,000 new units of housing by 2030, highlighting that Boston is in its third historic growth boom.

Glover’s Corner is “an area that will likely face increasing development pressure,” according to a BPDA statement. Along with population issues, considerations of historically significant properties in the study area, and major mixed-use projects like the Dot Block development, planners are also cognizant of the span’s susceptibility to climate hazards identified in a December report released by the city.

Fundamentally, the planning study aims to lay out standards for predictable, community-approved development in the area going forward. Officials hope that robust feedback in these early stages will form the foundation for discussions of new zoning and public investment.

Questions will be accepted throughout February at bostonplans.org.