The Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association on Monday voted to accept a $750,000 donation from a real estate development team that is intent on building out a campus of mixed-use buildings on Morrissey Boulevard over the next decade.

The money would come from Centre Court LLC, which won approval from city planners last month to build a seven-building campus at 35-75 Morrissey Blvd that includes the site of the former Channel 56 television studio.

The civic group and its leadership team has been mulling the benefits and potential costs of accepting the donation since last fall. During a discussion that preceded the vote on Monday evening, proponents noted that the development plans have already been approved.

“We’re accepting this with no strings attached and no expectations or requirements,” said Don Walsh, who chairs the civic group’s Community Benefits Committee. “The city has already approved this development. They’re giving us the money after it has been approved, not before.”

Bill Walczak, the newly elected president of the association, agreed: “It’s not unheard of, but we’re out on the cutting edge with this,” he said, “and it’s something that could be very beneficial to the neighborhood and how we function.”

Walczak writes an opinion column that appears regularly in the Reporter.

The civic is forming a non-profit 501c4 to serve as the fiscal agent for the funding, and Walsh noted that association by-laws need to be changed to allow for proper handling of this donation and any other future gifts.

“Any spending of the funds will need to be determined by a vote of the members of the civic association,” he said.

There will be a Community Benefits committee meeting on Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Savin Hill Yacht Club to sort out more details, with paperwork to establish the 501c4 status already underway, Walsh said. They hope to receive the money by June.

Some ideas for using the donation have already been floated, such as hiring a full-time executive director, staging more neighborhood events, and doing advance planning for underutilized areas of the neighborhood like Freeport Street.

“We’re taking it one step at a time,” said Walsh. “The first step is that we needed to say whether we will or will not take the money. [Now] we can work out the other pieces.”

The hybrid in-person/online vote featured 19 votes in the affirmative for those in person, with no in-person opposing. Online votes hadn’t been tabulated by press time, but most votes were in the affirmative with a few abstaining or opposing.

THE NOTEBOOK

•C-11 Officer Mike Keaney reported that the Boston Police Civil Rights Unit detectives are investigating a Dec. 24 incident on the 200 block of Savin Hill Avenue in which a lawn sign that read ‘I Stand with Israel’ was vandalized by unknown perpetrators. The sign was in the homeowner’s yard and a large piece of tape with the word ‘Genocide’ was placed over the sign.

•City Councillor John FitzGerald and two staff members attended Monday’s meeting. FitzGerald announced that Amanda Curley will serve as his chief of staff and Julie Ryan will also remain on staff. Both worked for former Councillor Frank Baker.

•Members voted to request expedited speed humps and other traffic calming measures for the Savin Hill area – particularly on Savin Hill Avenue by the tennis courts. This comes after several areas, including Bowdoin-Geneva, St. Brendan’s, and the Hancock Triangle were prioritized to get speed humps in late 2023 and early 2024.

•Jake Wachman was appointed by state Sen. Nick Collins to the new Morrissey Boulevard Commission. A second meeting of that panl is expected to be held in February at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute on Columbia Point.

•A revamped proposal for the Southline’s planned five-story, 135-foot building behind the existing building on Morrissey Boulevard was met with “consternation” during a recent Planning Committee meeting because a larger version had been green-lighted last year. The new version has a smaller square footage, and fewer parking spaces, and isn’t viewed by neighbors as favorably as the original.