Boston PIC Continues All Six Petitions, Eyes June Hearings for Major Decisions

BOSTON -- May 21, 2026, Boston's Public Improvement Commission heard six development petitions Thursday and continued all of them to future hearings, with the most substantial presentation coming from Franciscan Children's Hospital in Brighton. Howard Mosier of VHB outlined a proposed 7,700-square-foot pedestrian easement and accompanying streetscape repairs, including two raised pedestrian crossings, curb cut closures on both Cambridge Street and Warren Street, new street trees, and street lighting, tied to a campus modernization that Jennifer Atlas of Franciscan described as the hospital's first major overhaul since its 1949 founding. The commission also heard new petitions for specific repairs near Jackson Square from Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation and the Boston Housing Authority, at Robert Lawson Park from the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department, and for a 21-unit mixed-use building at 1905–1911 Center Street in West Roxbury from CAD Builders LLC. All items except the Jackson Square petition were continued to June 4; the Mildred Haley Phase 2 petition was pushed to June 25 after a scheduling conflict with a simultaneous Tree Commission hearing on a required tree removal.