Squares+Streets has come to Dorchester. The Boston Planning and Development Agency’s (BPDA) local planning process officially started in Fields Corner two weeks ago. Codman Square’s kickoff was postponed when the city suddenly added Four Corners to the planning area. The BPDA wants to reschedule that kickoff in June.

What is Squares+Streets? It’s a city-driven plan to relieve the housing crisis by putting up bigger, denser, higher buildings in “transit-rich” shopping districts like Fields Corner, Codman Square, and Four Corners. The BPDA hopes this will get people out of their cars, bring more customers to nearby stores, and improve our climate by cutting car pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

To make this happen, the city has already passed new zoning laws that allow housing developers to build “as of right” along the main streets. Developers can replace one-story buildings with new commercial/residential buildings of four to seven stories, depending on their location.

These are fundamental changes that will reshape our neighborhoods for the next several decades, and maybe not for the better. If done wrong, they could increase displacement, worsen traffic, and make Dorchester’s heat islands even hotter. Those who will be most affected must lead the planning. Involving them will take time and local knowledge that only our community organizations can supply.

We are offering to work with the BPDA in a genuine partnership, and we hope they will say yes. Together we can create an effective engagement plan that reaches the hardest to reach – low-income, working three jobs, limited English, poor health, house-bound, young, old, small businesspeople, and more. Our block groups and local organizations know best how to find them and draw out solutions that will work for them.

It will take time. We want to take the summer – the best time for block parties, deep conversations on the streets, events that explore our communities’ histories and challenges. Over three months we can develop a consensus about the neighborhoods we want and the city solutions we need. That can smooth and shorten the rest of the Squares+Streets process.

We need more than a survey. We need a community consensus. Without our help, we fear that the BPDA’s current process will reach a population that doesn’t represent Codman Square, Four Corners, or Fields Corner. Here’s why:

Squares+Streets has been running all this year in Roslindale. The BPDA has reached 27 Black residents, 42 Latinos, 21 Asian Americans, and 585 white residents, according to recent BPDA data. Roslindale is 47.4 percent white.

BPDA staff are working hard, but they are new to our neighborhoods. They cannot substitute for the scores of active residents and the decades of community relationships that we can contribute.

We know we’re volunteering to sacrifice our summers on this process. Why are we signing up for three months of hard work?
We support the city’s goals. We want more affordable housing, less traffic, more prosperous store owners, and cleaner air. But we fear it could all go wrong unless there’s deep community engagement that brings in the people who will be most affected.
So, what could go wrong?

Traffic. New housing will bring, ideally, thousands of new neighbors. Who thinks they will give up their cars? Maybe we’ll see worse traffic jams, more exhaust, heat, pollution, and more frustrated shoppers. Does the city have policies and tools to avoid the worst?

Small businesses. Most don’t own their locations. When their landlords sell and their leases end, they’ll have to relocate. Can they afford the higher rents in brand-new buildings? The city does not have programs that will make more than a tiny dent in this problem. Displacement. Tenants who live in modest-rent apartments will also face eviction when their buildings are sold. Where can they move? Under the city’s current standards, four out of five new housing units can be market rate – affordable for incomes in the hundreds of thousands. And that fifth “affordable” unit will be affordable if you earn $80,000 (for a family of three in 2023). That is not affordable for more than half of the people who live here now.

Whole neighborhoods must create solutions to these challenges. Those who might be hit hardest need to be the first to say what’s needed.

We are not NIMBYs – we’re not saying, “not in by back yard, nothing must change.” We’re not YIMBYs – “build, build, build.” We are residents who are looking for solutions that fit our neighborhood, that add a lot more housing and will make it affordable for the people who live here.

We hope the BPDA will accept our offer.

Saranya Sathananthan and Mike Prokosch are two members of Codman Square United, a growing network of residents, coordinated by the Codman Square Neighborhood Council and the Second Church in the square.