The City has heeded Jamaica Plain residents’ concerns and will include South Street in the upcoming street redesign project that will now go from Jackson Square to Forest Hills, according to Rachel Szakmary of the Boston Transportation Department.
The City will hold a meeting July 8 at the Kennedy Elementary School on the Hyde Square portion of the project. Presentations and discussions on Hyde Square will focus on history, design, engineering capabilities, street furniture and streetscape.
The City plans to have final conceptual design for the project by the end of July, 25 percent design by the end of November and 100 percent design by June 2015. For more information, visit bit.ly/1nZ4Nfk.
The name of the redesign project reflects the change to include South Street and will now be called the Jamaica Plain South Hyde Jackson Design Projects. The redesign project will stretch on 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.
But a facelift at Monument Square, which was included in earlier phases of the redesign project, might not happen, as the City revealed during a April 28 meeting. It was there that City officials heard from residents about their desire for South Street to be included in the project.
The project 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.