City to host meeting on Monument Sq.

The City will host a community meeting Jan. 22 to discuss improvements to Monument Square as part of the Jamaica Plain/South/Hyde/Jackson Design Projects. But they will not be the drastic changes that were talked about during earlier phases of the redesign project.

Boston Transportation Department (BTD) Director of Planning Vineet Gupta said the changes to be discussed include improving traffic flow through the square by fixing the signals and making adjustments to have the area more pedestrian-friendly.

Prior versions of the year-old planning process included eliminating a branch of Centre Street around the Soldier’s Monument in the square, changing it from a traffic island into an extension of the nearby First Church in Jamaica Plain property. That was controversial, and at one point, BTD appeared to abandon the idea of making any changes at all.

The meeting will be the City’s fourth on the Jamaica Plain/South/Hyde/Jackson Design Projects. The project will stretch along Centre Street from Jackson Square to Hyde Square to Monument Square, then down South Street to Forest Hills. The project is intended to make sidewalks and crosswalks more pedestrian-friendly, improve traffic flow and add green space

The City held a meeting on Hyde Square last fall where a redesign was presented that would increase the width of the sidewalk around the Hyde Square rotary, expand the cement islands in the middle of Centre Street, add numerous trees, and install bike racks and public art. The improvements would lead to the loss of five parking spots.

The Jan. 22 meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Curtis Hall, 20 South St.

Jamaica Plain/South/Hyde/Jackson Design Projects is part of the Centre and South Streets Streetscape and Transportation Action Plan that developed general guidelines for the look and feel of the Centre/South corridor, and aimed to fix some specific traffic trouble spots. The planning first began in 2009. For more information, visit bit.ly/1nZ4Nfk.

This story has been updated to include the location of the meeting.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *