Neighborhood Strategic Plan – First in 50 years! By Jennifer Goldson , Vice President of Roslindale Village Main Street & Roslindale Advisory Group

As a member of the Roslindale Advisory Group, representing Roslindale Village Main Street , I’ve participated in monthly public meetings with the Boston Redevelopment Authority for just over a year to work on the Neighborhood Strategic Plan for Roslindale. This community planning effort will develop recommendations for a complete overhaul of the current zoning ordinance for Roslindale for the first time in 50 years!

As the planning process moves closer to completion, I can’t help wondering if all the work that we’re doing will mean something. As a planner myself, I know it is a common perception that most plans, no matter how thoughtful, insightful, or well-intentioned, end up sitting useless and neglected on some city planner’s shelf, only to gather dust.

Will this be the fate of the Roslindale Neighborhood Strategic Plan? Will our efforts and good intentions be for naught? Will we wonder five years from now, “What ever happened to that plan?” I don’t think so. Not this time. Not now. Not with the level of community involvement that’s shaping this plan. Not with the strong support we are seeing from community leaders. Not with the type of issues we are facing and need solutions for - protection from inappropriate development, protection of open space and wetlands, solutions to traffic and parking problems, growing vacancies hurting commercial vitality, and the list goes on.

This plan will be too important to cast aside, to neglect, to overlook.

The primary goal of the plan is concrete – to make recommendations to amend the 50 year old zoning ordinance to better preserve and protect neighborhood character, commercial vitality, and quality of life for Roslindale residents. The zoning recommendations will lead to the creation of a new permanent zoning ordinance which would then replace the current zoning and the Interim Planning Overlay District (a band-aid that was put on the current zoning in April 2005 to help protect the neighborhood from inappropriate changes while this strategic planning process is underway).

So far, we’ve had an impressive level of community involvement not only in terms of the numbers of participants but also in terms of the thoughtfulness of the input. Although we are coming very close to seeing a draft plan from the consultant, Crosby|Schlessinger|Smallridge (CSS), it’s not too late for you to get involved and to have a voice in the process. In fact, this is a great time to get involved.

On Thursday, November 30, at the Sacred Heart School cafeteria , we’ll hold the third community meeting. This time we’ll be presenting alternative strategies to include in the plan and asking for your feedback as to what specific recommendations should be included. What does that mean? Ok, for example, should the Library block be rezoned to promote redevelopment of the Substation and vacant gas station land? This is just one among a number of specific issues. The point is, we are now getting down to the real substance of the plan – the details – deciding on the specific recommendations that should be included.

So far, the BRA and the Roslindale Advisory Group have held two community meetings. The first was in March to identify key issues that Roslindale is facing and the priorities that the plan should address. At that meeting, CSS asked the 120 plus community participants a few thought-provoking questions and provided maps for each of nine focus groups to annotate and identify issues.

After analyzing the ideas that came up at that first meeting, and then absorbing a lot of factual demographic and land use information that the City presented to us, we then held another community meeting in July to present and refine a vision for the future of Roslindale (see Vision Statement in sidebar). The vision was well-received by the 200 plus participants who stopped by the Sons of Italy one July evening at this open-house format meeting to talk one on one with members of the Roslindale Advisory Group, the BRA, other City staff, and CSS members. Although the vision is a very general “apple pie” type statement, it’s meant to be the basis from which the specific recommendations for the plan will stem.

After the community meeting on November 30, the Roslindale Advisory Group will work with the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the consultants, CSS, to create a draft plan to present at a fourth community meeting in the next 8 weeks. The final plan is scheduled for release in March.

The consultants have an informative website where you can learn more about this project, keep track of upcoming Advisory Group and community meetings, and download materials. Go to www.cssboston.com/projects/roslindale. Please join us on November 30 th !

Roslindale resident, Jennifer Goldson, is a volunteer member and vice president of Roslindale Village Main Street (RVMS) and the RVMS representative for the Roslindale Advisory Group.

SIDE BAR

ROSLINDALE NEIGHBORHOOD STRATEGIC PLAN

VISION

• A Neighborhood that provides a wide range of housing options (including unit sizes, building types, and pricing) for new and existing residents
• Increased housing opportunities for middle income families
• Active, smaller commercial nodes along major roadways
• Attractive, walkable neighborhood with easy pedestrian connections to open space, transit and commercial areas
• A greener neighborhood with more street trees and attractive, protected open space, and well-connected to neighborhoods: Arboretum, Stony Brook, Dale Street, pocket parks and playgrounds, Protection for Weld Hill, Wetlands, Dale Street and Sherrin Woods
• Preservation of historic resources and village character while allowing for new development
• Safe, family-friendly, and diverse (economically and ethnically) neighborhood
• Maintain existing residential densities in areas that are already primarily residential
• Mixed use and increased residential opportunities at key “walkable” intersections and hubs
• Improved MBTA commuter rail and bus access
• Sustainable development promoting “green” design standards