Boston PIC Approves Charlestown Foundation License, Dorchester Slow Streets Plan

BOSTON -- July 17, 2025, Boston's Public Improvement Commission approved a Dorchester slow streets reconstruction and a Charlestown foundation excavation license while sending an Eversource utility pole petition back for more study. Chair Ashka Franklin-Hodge led the unanimous votes Thursday, including approval of the City of Boston Public Works Department's plan to raise two crosswalks and add green stormwater infrastructure on Babson, Delhi, and Crossman streets in Mattapan, and a joint petition by Bunker Hill Land Co. LLC and the Boston Housing Authority for earth retention sheeting tied to a nine-story, 265-unit building at 30 Samuel Morris Way in Charlestown. An Eversource petition to install a new pole on Harvard Street in Dorchester was continued to July 31 after commissioners raised alarms about a 5-foot-10-inch sidewalk already crowded with poles leaving as little as 4 feet of clearance, an overhead street light feed running between the existing concrete poles, and the unresolved question of whether the adjacent housing project would ultimately force relocation of the corner pole at Spencer and Harvard. A Verizon petition for a pole on Nasing Street in Roxbury was formally withdrawn, with the company expected to return August 14 with a revised design.