City planning officials told the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council (GMNC) at a Monday meeting that after receiving a $15 million federal grant, they are ready to move toward the next level of re-designing Blue Hill Avenue from Mattapan Square to Warren Street while renewing discussions with the community once again.

Charlotte Fleetwood of Boston Transportation Department (BTD) told attendees that “we applied in July for $25 million and we got $15 million, which was less than what we asked for but still a substantial amount of money and it gives us confidence we’ll have all the funds to complete the project.”

Two weeks ago, Congressman Stephen Lynch and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley announced that they had secured $15 million from a federal RAISE grant just one year after the government had rejected a grant application for the same project.

State Rep. Russell Holmes reminded everyone that planning for the project, including the center-lane bus configuration, goes back 12 years and that many decisions have been made already.

The project includes a center-lane bus configuration like the one unveiled last fall on Columbus Avenue in Jamaica Plain. On Blue Hill Avenue, the lane would run from Warren Street to Mattapan Square, which will probably mean fewer stops along the avenue. Advocates, though, indicate it would mean quicker trips and more efficient bus operations.

Fleetwood said the “givens” in the project are the center-land bus operations, the increased pedestrian safety measures, and the high-quality bicycle lanes. She said there would probably be important discussions to be had about “trade-offs,” including changing the angled parking in Mattapan Square to parallel parking resulting in fewer parking slots. She noted the desire for street trees, and said “we would have room for street trees, but we’d have to lose parking. Those are the issues we want to talk about at this meeting and out in the community.”

GMNC Chair Fatima Ali-Salaam said the focus should be a better-functioning Mattapan Square and not just the operations of a center-lane bus. She joked that the red lanes created for center buses remind her of Elmo, the red Sesame Street character. She said that she calls it “Elmo’s Mile,” adding she is thinking about “a Mattapan Square where I want to go and be with friends and go shopping. That has to be the goal.”

Jarred Johnson, executive director of Transit Matters, attended the meeting and said he is an advocate of the center-lane bus.

“At first it looks confusing, but I want folks to visualize a typical clustered and crowded day on Blue Hill Avenue where there is double parking by the bus stop from an UberEATS delivery driver and the bus has to pull in diagonally to get to the stop,” he said. “In that, a senior or a young mother is walking off the curb and into street traffic to get to the bus…It takes time to get used to, but for efficiency, you gain a lot from having them center-running.”

He noted that in the earlier planning efforts, the slow ride of the bus from Mattapan Square to Ruggles was an item of great concern, something vastly improved by a center-lane configuration.

Johnson also said he was excited to see that an RFP had been issued by the city for public engagement on the project, and he was hopeful that the team led by ACE and Livable Streets would be chosen.

Fleetwood indicated she would be back at the GMNC meeting in January with some new renderings and ready for detailed discussions.

MATTAPAN NOTEBOOK
• Transit Matters Director Johnson came to Monday’s meeting to discuss how the neighborhood can and should push for electrification of buses in Mattapan. He noted that the Arborway Yard bus garage project at Forest Hills was being moved up on its construction schedule due to new federal infrastructure monies. What that means for Mattapan, he said, is that advocacy could result in busy lines like the 28 and 22 routes being moved from the South Boston garage to the Arborway – allowing for electrification of those key Mattapan routes.

The same was said for the Quincy garage that is about two years from construction. Both house buses that run in Mattapan, and both could bring electrification with advocacy. State Rep. Holmes encouraged everyone to attend an online MBTA meeting this Thursday (Dec. 9) about the Arborway Garage project.

• State Rep. Brandy Fluker-Oakley reported that she and state Sen. Nick Collins, were able to get $8 million in the Covid-19 funding bill dedicated to the Haitian Resettlement efforts that are ongoing in Mattapan, specifically through the Immigrant Family Services Institute. She said they are waiting to see if Gov. Baker will sign the bill with that allocation included - something he has indicated he would do.

• New board members Chad Fletcher, Wes Williams and Azan Reid were voted in by the membership.

• The first residents of Cote Village will move into the 24 townhouses on Dec. 15.

• The Mattapan Teen Center will be holding a coat drive on Dec. 15. They are asking that new or lightly used coats be dropped off at the Center on that day.