The developers behind the $5 billion “Dorchester Bay City” proposal, which would remake 36 acres in the neighborhood’s Columbia Point area, are hoping to receive a key approval from city officials by this summer.

Accordia Partners last week unveiled changes to the project, which seeks to bring a mix of uses, from commercial and lab space, as well as residences, to the site of the former Bayside Expo Center. The firm also owns 2 Morrissey Blvd., which is home to Santander Bank offices, as well as a subdivision of land owned by the Boston Teachers Union.

The latest version of the proposal, filed with the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) last week, would create more open space by the waterfront, in part by ditching a large building, and placing a 6,300-square-foot “pavilion” that focuses on public amenities.

Dick Galvin of Accordia Partners appeared before the Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association’s planning committee on the same day the developer filed the update (Dec. 13). Committee members focused on the impact of building Dorchester Bay City, an effort slated to last over decades, and the expectation that the state will eventually reconstruct “K Circle,” shorthand for ​​Kosciuszko Circle, the traffic-snarled rotary off Morrissey, Columbia Road, and I-93.

“A huge benefit of the project is being a catalyst but also a direct contributor to solutions,” Galvin said at the planning committee’s meeting, which took place over Zoom.

The proposed changes to the area include overhauls to traffic flow and street improvements, with bike lanes stretching down Mt. Vernon Street from the JFK/UMass MBTA station to the UMass Boston campus.

Bill Walzcak, a longtime Dorchester activist and resident of Savin Hill, worries that the construction may bring more challenges to the area. “Dorchester traffic getting any worse is a crazy idea,” he said, “but where do the cars and traffic go around the street construction?”

Citing internal project estimates, Galvin said the number of cars on the street before and during construction would be approximately the same.
Kirk Sykes, also of Accordia Partners, said transportation cannot be addressed in isolation. Fixing that element, Sykes said, has to go hand-in-hand with building neighborhood resiliency to climate change and rising sea levels, the other focus of the Bay City project. Affordable housing is yet another focus, and all must be addressed simultaneously, with support from the public and private sector, he added.

“We have to keep pressure on but also involve public agencies,” Galvin said. “The things we can do ourselves are funding and building Mt. Vernon St and other smaller things, but there are things we need to do collectively with the state and others.”

Both Galvin and Sykes said they hoped to get a BPDA board vote on the project, a key approval, by this summer. “We may not agree on everything, but I’m hoping we can agree to move forward,” Sykes said.

But some residents said they wanted more of the project to focus on K Circle and Morrissey Boulevard. “It’s too bad a group of developers can’t get together and see how this project intersects at K Circle,” Jake Wachman said.

State officials, joined on a designated commission by city leaders, have been tasked with reviewing the Morrissey corridor, as the area grapples with a development up and down the key coastal thoroughfare. A report is due by next June.