A controversial Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) effort to reimagine zoning and planning in select business districts is on hold, for the moment, in Codman Square as officials seek to expand the pilot project’s boundaries to include more of the Washington Street corridor up to Four Corners.

The “Squares + Streets” process for Codman Square was set to launch this coming Saturday (May 4) with an open house at the Great Hall, but that event was put off early in the week.

In a Tuesday email sent by BPDA staff, residents were told that the agency had “postponed the May 4, 2024, launch for Codman Square to broaden the scope of the plan to include Four Corners and Washington Street. During our engagement in Codman Square, we received feedback about the interconnectedness of these areas and the importance of looking at them together.”

The decision prompted pushback from activists in Four Corners, who say they were surprised to find that their section was being pulled into the planning initiative without discussion or notice. They convened an emergency meeting on Monday evening at the Codman Square library to air their grievances to a handful of city officials who were in attendance.

“You say that nothing has happened here for a while, and you want to make it better and improve it and to those of us in Four Corners, that sounds like urban renewal,” said Tarshia Green-Williams, of Action 4 Equity, who said she and others only learned of the change last weekend. “We didn’t ask for this so what are we going to get out of it?

She added: “This is one of the only places in the city where you can get an apartment. We want to know who asked for this and what does it mean?”

Said Weezy Waldstein, another resident who is active with Action 4 Equity: “The whole process in Codman Square hasn’t been clear and it’s been so prescriptive – saying this is going to happen. Then they ask people what they think…The whole framing of it is the cart before the horse.”

The Squares + Streets initiative seeks to re-zone smaller areas using pre-determined zoning blocks known as ‘S’ districts – going from 0 to 5. The idea is to quickly build more densely along the small business district corridors like Codman Square, and to simplify the code to make housing projects allowable “as of right” to avoid long planning processes. Codman Square is one of four districts across the city where the process is being rolled out, joining Fields Corner, Hyde Park, and Roslindale.

Four Corners was not part of the study area until just recently, and its inclusion was described by some as “sudden.” On Monday, city planners said they see the area as less of a circle and more of a corridor. While it did encompass Washington Street in a circle from Park Street to Ashmont Street, it now includes the Washington Street corridor from around Talbot Avenue all the way to Erie Street, but does not include the Ashmont-Adams neighborhood south of Codman.

Officials said the change was meant to expand the area to qualify for an influx of city funding and resources. They also said Four Corners was on the original list of areas where Squares + Streets could be implemented, and they saw a natural connection along the corridor with transportation and commerce.

At Monday’s meeting, Codman Square and Four Corners leaders sat around the table with BPDA Squares + Streets planners Lamei Zhang and Naoise McDonnell seeking common ground.

Maridena Rojas, of the Talbot Norfolk Triangle Neighborhood Association (TNT), called for the BPDA to agree to a process co-designed, and co-led, with the community.

“In Codman Square, we are all starting at square one,” she said. “We want to co-design a process with you. Our communities have been harmed by the BPDA. We’re trying to build a bridge together here, not build on top of a broken bridge.”

She said that approach could include designing a survey together, getting raw data not interpreted by the BPDA, and assembling focus groups together.

Cynthia Loesch-Johnson, chair of the Codman Square Neighborhood Council (CSNC), said it’s up to the BPDA to work on the community’s terms.

“The CSNC wants this Squares + Streets process in Codman Square to be a success and that can only happen if the city is willing to partner with the community on co-leading the community engagement process,” she said.

Green Williams said that people in her neighborhood are wary of being re-zoned.

“Four Corners is one of the few places left that is for families,” she said. “Everything that’s built is one- or two-bedroom units and that’s not for a family. Look at the school enrollments, they’re down. What makes up a community is families. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of anonymous workers coming and going with nothing in common.”

Said Saranya Sathananthan: “I already feel burnt out by the process because there are so many things going on. We’re kind of tired from all of this and to engage with the city in all these processes takes a lot. I want to make sure people that live here and that this will affect can engage in a meaningful way without getting tapped out.”

The May 4 Squares + Streets kickoff session has now been changed to a “coffee and conversation” meeting in the Great Hall to discuss what it means to have a co-led process, and what it means to now have Four Corners in the study area. BPDA planners hope to reschedule a formal kickoff in June.