Saint Mark’s Area Civic Association (SMACA) Meeting Minutes
November 29, 2022 7:00pm
Basement of St. Mark’s Church
Minutes by Kendra Beaver, Secretary

Attendees (including speakers): 14
Police Report — Officer Mike Keaney
● Nov. 6 - Armed robbery at 1724 Dorchester Ave
● Nov. 9 - Arrested two women at 5 Semont Rd who had crack/cocaine on them
● Nov. 23 - Unarmed carjacking at intersection of Dorchester Ave/Mather St
● Nov. 28 - Shots fired at 31 Lindsey St; one victim hit
● C-11 will be having a Christmas party that’s “by invitation only”; trying to hold it to about 100
kids (ages 1-12); if you know a family in need in District 11, let Officer Keaney know
Representatives of Elected Officials updates & answers to questions
● Brianna Millor (brianna.m[email protected]), Chief of Community Engagement for the Mayor’s
office
○ Oversees Boston 311, the Office of Neighborhood Services, Office of Civic Organizing,
SPARK Boston Council, & Boston Senior Safe Program
■ Get support for weatherizing your home: 617-635-HOME
○ Boston Community Choice Electricity: opt-in to get a more reasonable price for your
electricity compared to Eversource’s basic rate, including the option for it to be 100%
renewable energy: 617-635-3850
○ Connor Newman will be the new point of contact until George’s successor is hired
● Colleen Lofgren (774-225-1320), Representative Daniel Hunt’s office
○ No updates; please reach out with any questions/concerns
● Lisa Searcy (lisa.searc[email protected], 617-635-3115), City Councilor Erin Murphy’s office
○ The Royal Family will be in Boston Wednesday-Friday; keep traffic restrictions in mind
○ Join Councilor Murphy’s newsletter: https://conta.cc/3igDl4q
○ Public hearing about Mass & Cass on December 1st
○ Call 311 with any non-emergency constituent issues, and make sure you get your case
number so you can follow up
Neighborhood Development Proposals
1. 45 Dracut St
a. No show; no vote
Inclusionary Development Policy (IDP)
● Mark McGonagle ([email protected])
● IDP started in 2000 as an executive order under Mayor Menino
● A home rule petition a couple of years ago allowed Boston to put affordable housing into its
zoning code
● A certain percentage of all residential buildings of 10 units or more must set aside a certain
percentage of those units as deed-restricted with an income limit and a rent cap
○ IDP only applies to private development; privately financed
1
● Many updates since then, but most important one: Update in 2016 reinforced the 13%
minimum limit for all onsite units + created 3 zones (Zone A which is downtown Boston, Zone
B: South Boston, East Boston, Allston/Brighton, etc., Zone C: includes Dorchester)
○ A lot of projects are voluntarily doing 15-17% instead of the minimum 13%
● Rare to see an offsite option, but some developments can do offsite housing under IDP ranging
from 18%-15%
○ 15% in Dorchester
○ Offsite housing has to be a half-mile within the project
● Buyouts - Developers can also “buy out” their required “affordable” units by contributing
$200,000+ (depending on the Zone) per unit to a City affordable housing fund instead of
building actual affordable units (e.g. ultra-luxury buildings in Seaport); this is extremely rare
● Approximately 5,000 units created through the IDP program
● Linkage fees - All commercial develop (e.g. office buildings, lab buildings [not restaurants or
retail]) that’s nonresidential have to pay $15.39/sq foot
○ $13/sq ft goes to affordable housing fund; the remaining change goes to job training
programs in Boston
● Area Median Income (AMI) - regional figure for fair housing laws; AMI is $98k/yr for a single
individual in our area
○ Rental IDP program: for most rentals, tenant’s income is capped at 70% AMI (today is
no more than $68k/yr); 80% AMI (most of condos) is $78k/yr for a single individual
○ Boston Housing Authority AMI typically goes no higher than 20%, so they really serve
the most in need
● IDP program is a moderate income program; most federal and state assistance comes in the
low income range
○ 56% comes from federal programs (e.g. CBDG program); 27% comes from state (e.g.
Section 8 program); 17% percent comes from the City
● Mayor Wu hired a consulting firm to craft potential new policies; appointed a 13 member
commission in April to look at if the 13% minimum IDP percentage is good and/or if we should
lower the 10 unit trigger number
● Boston has the highest percentage (20%) of deed restricted units than any other city in
America
● Resident question: Concerned about biohazards and BPDA’s stance on it:
○ Level 4 (extremely rare and dangerous and no known cure); only one in Boston (in the
South End) > Level 3 (curable but nasty) > Level 2 (more common; diseases that have
known cure) > Level 1 (chemistry lab in a science class)
○ Recommends reaching out to Boston Public Health Commission and speaking on the
details of this at a future meeting
○ After expert consultation, BPDA board is comfortable approving Level 2 labs or below
in all neighborhoods (fire department & health commission have to also approve)
○ All existing level 3 labs in Boston are tied to existing hospitals
● Resident question: Are the lab booms starting to creep into Boston plans?
○ Imagine Boston 2030 chose areas throughout the city that had the greatest potential
and developers were already active in; e.g. large areas of underutilized industrial land
(e.g. Glover’s Corner)
○ Go Boston 2030 as well
SMACA Survey results
2
● SMACA will share the final survey results report once it’s available to us
● Survey was sent out to 210 people online (entire mailing list) and to 22 people via snail mail →
64 completed surveys (31% response rate, which is pretty good in today’s survey research
world)
● Demographic results:
○ Average age: over 40% 65+; 33%+ ages 41-64
○ 65% of respondents were female
○ Overwhelmingly white (no hispanic respondents at all)
○ Pretty highly educated group; almost 50% had more than a college education + almost
20% college graduates only
○ Close to 64% have lived in the SMACA area more than 10 years
● Meeting questions results:
○ 40% of respondents never go to meetings
■ Why? Time, busy, not convenient, can’t find babysitting; nothing really stood
out as surprising
○ What are the most important parts of the meeting?
■ Voting on developments were most important
■ 40% thought police report was important
■ 25% said guest speakers
○ Not important?
■ Police
■ Voting
■ Kind of mixed bag; some people thought X thing was really important while
others thought X thing wasn’t
■ 66% of people thoughts most of the items were important or very important
○ What would make the meetings better?
■ Virtual meeting options
■ Better control of timing
■ Not having people ask the same question more than once
■ Better member representation and engagement and being more inclusive
○ Future discussion topics?
■ Building/construction concerns
■ Greenspaces
■ Rising housing costs
■ Crime in the neighborhood
■ …all of the above got 40%+
○ Respondents were satisfied with SMACA: 40% were very satisfied; 51% somewhat
satisfied = 90% somewhat or very satisfied
○ Outside meetings?
■ 65% want to do things with each other outside of going to meetings!
○ New businesses on Dot Ave?
■ Winners were a lot of food things (e.g. coffee shops, restaurants that serve
breakfast, sandwich shops), book stores, thrift stores
○ Higher percentage of owner respondents than renters
3
Community Announcements
● Come to the SMACA holiday party on Tuesday, December 13th, from 6-9pm at Jim & Doug’s
house (21 Cheverus Rd, Second Floor)
● 24 Dawson St was approved by the ZBA
● 110R Lonsdale St was approved by the ZBA
● Please share our SMACA flyers by forwarding it to a friend virtually or posting them in your
neighborhood by printing them out
Meeting adjourned at: 8:43pm