It's been awhile since we have heard anything about this. I came across an article in the SAMPAN newspaper (Chinatown).
Chinatown Coalition Steps Up Efforts to Influence Development of 20-Acre Site
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Sep 1, 2006
by Adam Smith
A coalition of Chinatown groups and residents has stepped up its efforts to influence the development and design of 20 acres of land bordering Chinatown and the Leather District.
The group, named the Chinatown Gateway Coalition, last month hired its first full-time staff person, Kai Leung, who will act as project coordinator, and it plans to hold a community design forum in coming months for the land, which is officially known as the South Bay Planning Study Area, and unofficially known as the Chinatown Gateway area. Currently, the coalition is educating Chinatown residents about the land, which city officials hope to turn into a new residential district, and its pending development.
The South Bay Planning Study Area, which consists mostly of former Big Dig parcels, is bounded by Kneeland Street, Albany Street, the Massachusetts Turnpike I-90 mainline, and the I-93 northbound mainline.
Developing the land could prove costly and complicated because elevated highway roads and ramps cross through it, leaving only about 10 acres of usable dirt ground. Nevertheless, the year-old Chinatown Gateway Coalition hopes to take advantage of a lull in the city and state planning process for the area and draft its own guidelines for developing the land.
More than two years ago, the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority began working with city residents, architects, developers and planners to create zoning and development guidelines for the area. In September of 2004, the Boston Redevelopment Authority issued a report on the South Bay's planning process, which was to be broken into two phases. Shortly after the first phase was completed with the issuing of the report, the land was open for bids. Only one developer, Boston Residential, submitted a proposal for developing the area, most of which is owned by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
But since October of 2004, news of the South Bay Planning Study Area has died down, and the Turnpike Authority has revealed little public information about its intentions for the 20 acres. It has also issued no decision on whether it will select Boston Residential to build hundreds of apartments and condos and a towering 67-floor building. The lack of planning activity by city and state officials for the land has been capped by the recent controversies plaguing the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority due to its handling of the construction of Big Dig tunnels and its leadership shakeup.
This is where the coalition hopes to step in and create its own guidelines for building on the land, before the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Turnpike Authority begin the second phase of their planning process.
"[We] have come together to create a community vision of how to develop the Chinatown Gateway area," said Leung, who has previously worked as a community organizer for the Chinese Progressive Association, which participates in the coalition.
He suggested that the coalition fears that city and state officials will not seek out or enforce building plans and guidelines that benefit Chinatown residents.
"We feel like the Chinatown community has a stake in what can be developed there. If we do not take part in the process, then we will lose out," he said.
Alex Zhang, who works for the Asian Community Development Corporation, also a member of the coalition, said the Gateway group is dissatisfied with the development process initiated by the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. Zhang said that the coalition has worked to educate residents of Chinatown on the South Bay Planning Study Area and found that most residents don't know anything about the land.
Even the name of the land to be developed is a point of contention.
"The city and state call it the South Bay Planning Study Area. We're calling it the Chinatown Gateway because about three-fourths of the land is under Chinatown area zoning," said Leung.
Sue Kim, a project manager at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, however, said that the city included members of the Chinatown community as well as residents of the Leather District to participate in the first phase of the planning process for the South Bay Planning Study Area. She also said that the city agency is open to working with the coalition. In addition, the Boston Redevelopment Authority's report on the study area issued in 2004 was translated into Chinese and widely distributed.
Kim also noted that early visions for the land could change during the second phase of planning. She said that initially city planners had "some pretty big ideas" for the South Bay Planning Study Area because of the large size of the land and the complexity of developing the site, which contains raised highways and roads. But, she indicated that as the design process is revisited later this year, the development goals for the land may be altered to allow for the most feasible development project.
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority could not be reached by press time for this story.
