Boston PIC Approves Seaport Canopy, Greenlights Downtown Sidewalk Overhaul

BOSTON — February 8, 2024 — Boston's Public Improvement Commission approved a canopy license and a major sidewalk package at its February 8 meeting while putting Verizon on notice about protecting newly rebuilt bike infrastructure on Tremont Street. The commission unanimously approved a projection license for a four-and-a-half-foot canopy at Cronin Development's 237,000-square-foot life science building at 24 Dry Dock Avenue in South Boston's Ray L. Flynn Marine Park, and separately approved specific repairs — including accessible ramps, a vegetated bioswale, and sidewalk reconstruction — for BP3 BOS 55 Summer Street LLC's renovation of 55 Summer Street. Commission Chair Yasha Franklin-Hodge directed Verizon's representative Ross Bilodeau to relocate a planned conduit run on Tremont Street to the south side of the road entirely, saying "if I have like a no-fly zone for the bike path, sort it out." A new sidewalk petition tied to the conversion of a Dorchester hotel into 99 units of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless seniors was set for a public hearing February 29, alongside three Verizon conduit petitions and a West Roxbury private-way betterment process — where abutters face assessments of $4,000 to $5,000 each — headed to a community vote March 4 at the Perkins Community Center.