To the Editor:

A recent editorial page in the Reporter featured Bill Forry’s “A chance to plug into coastal resiliency plans” and Chistopher Binns’s letter to the editor, “Traffic signals and turn options could improve the everyday chaos at K-Circle.” Both thoughtful submissions brought to light once again the urgent need to address critical issues of resiliency and traffic faced by our community, particularly now after the approval of Dorchester Bay City’s six million square feet of development and other large-scale developments in its immediate vicinity.

After a five-year planning process, which included hundreds of Zoom “public” meetings, the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) approved Dorchester Bay City without getting specific answers to the most pressing questions raised by our community, such as, “How can we be assured that adequate stormwater and traffic mitigation will be implemented before the considerable impacts of this massive development are felt?”

We are Harbor Point Apartments, an environmental justice community with 3,400 residents, including 400 low-income households. We are the most impacted neighbor to Dorchester Bay City.

Our residents and representatives attended these hearings over the last five years, met separately with the developers and BPDA, and submitted comment letters and questions at every major regulatory filing by Dorchester Bay City. Mirroring the two editorialists, our questions and comments concerning resiliency and traffic were not adversarial, but practical. Despite our never getting answers to our key questions, Dorchester Bay City received the BPDA approval.

We don’t believe this is how local and state regulatory oversight is supposed to work. Only a month ago, a nondescript coastal storm breached the sea walls of DCR’s West Link of Dorchester Shores Reservation, of which 2,000 linear feet front the Harbor Point Apartments. Our streets were flooded, life safety equipment was compromised, and power and elevators were downed.

This happened before Dorchester Bay City raises its entire site by 5 to 6 ft., which will greatly exacerbate flooding on adjacent properties, including ours. It was a chilling reminder of the present-day threat of climate change to us and the surrounding community.

The BPDA and City of Boston have expended vast resources and efforts to shepherd through Dorchester Bay and other new large local proposals. We continue to wait for BPDA to extend equal consideration to the existing communities that are most impacted.

Orlando Perilla and Mike Corcoran
 Harbor Point Apartments
Company Limited Partnership