Meeting Notes: 

The meeting was called to order at 7:01.  There were 14 people in attendance. 

Item 1: Police Report (C-11 Police Officer Mike Keaney)

C-11 is thankful for all the generous donations from the St. Mark’s Area Civic Association donating toys to their toy drive this year. This year they were able to serve 400 kids from the area. 

There have been a couple of robberies in the area, some cell phone theft and theft out of people’s unlocked vehicles. C-11 would like to remind people to keep their car doors locked at all times to prevent theft from the vehicle. They were also able to recover stolen phones from people who had the find my phone function enabled. You can find out how to set it up for your iphone or android in the links. 

Item 2:  Annie Blair  (Update on the Doherty-Gibson Park) 

The City of Boston is investing over $1.2 Million in redesigning and improving the park and top lot. The first meeting to get community feedback was held in early January but the parks department is looking for comments throughout the process. The next community meeting is on March 26th. 

Items that are being discussed after hearing some feedback are adding water play areas, more shade, exciting play equipment and state of the art accessibility features so all can enjoy the park.

For more information please contact Annie Blair at the Boston Parks and Recreation Department at [email protected] or 617-961-3028.

Item 3: 79 Wrentham Street  (Proposed project) 

This project was slated for discussion at the meeting but the architect and attorney were not present. The property owner was not able to answer specific questions around the specifics of the project.
Later in the meeting we took a vote and there was an unanimous vote of 11 opposed to the project until we hear back with more concert plans. 

Item 4: 1813 Dot Ave (Proposed project, early stages, no vote) 

We heard from the team looking to develop the site at 1813 Dot Ave. They are at the very start of the process and have no concrete plans and are trying to get feedback from the community to help guide their process. So far they have been thinking of creating a 5 story building, the first floor being commercial with 4 residential floors. 

Questions that were brought up at the presentation were:

• What would be the parking situation at the site?
• Would units be rental or homeownership opportunities?
• Would there be space in the commercial area for non-profit use?
• What would be the number of affordable units?

Item 5: Open Discussion (Future presentation topics) 

SMACA president opened up the floor to get feedback on what people would like to hear about for future meetings. Items that were raised were:

• Recycling services
• Information on trees and Boston’s tree canopy
• New more eco-friendly construction methods 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:37 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Eugenia Soiles

Secretary