On the heels of the well attended hearing earlier this month to discuss creating an East Boston Master Plan, City Councilors Lydia Edwards and Michelle Wu have launched a community-wide survey to get more input and more resident involved in the process.
The survey, which can be found at https://goo.gl/forms/Wd0O3wmISLEXCm7M2, takes about five minutes to complete and the topics include: Community Engagement; Housing and Affordability; Transportation; Preparing for Climate Change; Economic Opportunity and Jobs; Arts and Culture; and Open Space.
“The Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) has recently announced a master planning process for East Boston,” said Councilor Edwards. “The objective of this survey is to garner a sense of what you envision the community to be in the future and what are areas that could be improved. The best planning happens when the community is in the driver’s seat, and for that to happen we need to know East Boston’s priorities before the plan begins. I encourage all of my neighbors in Eastie to submit their priorities through the survey and to continue to weigh in with city officials as the plan moves forward.”
A Master Plan is a community vision document that guides the strategic growth and economic development in an area. These plans touch on various components including transit connections, housing, land use, preparing for climate risks, access to open space and so forth.
“I’m excited to work with Councilor Lydia Edwards, community leaders and residents to lay the groundwork for a meaningful East Boston master planning process,” said Councilor Wu. “As Chair of the Council’s Committee on Planning, Development and Transportation, I’ve seen the pressures from development citywide. We want our city to grow and thrive, but we need our neighborhoods to be affordable and accessible for residents who built our communities through decades of activism.”
At last month’s hearing in Eastie hundreds of residents came out to share their vision for the neighborhood.
“The next step from my office, working with Councilor Edwards, is to conduct this community-wide survey to understand detailed preferences and concerns about quality of life in East Boston,” said Wu. “Our goal is to fold this into the master plan process so that we start with a baseline of community goals and engagement. The more people involved, the better plan we will create.”
Wu said the findings of all community meetings will be summarized in a report by the end of August 2018.