New BRA leader's vow: when you talk, we'll listen

It was yet another jam-packed meeting of Allston-Brighton neighbors and the Boston Redevelopment Authority. And there was the usual complaint: Nobody listens to the community.

Though the session on March 12 was supposed to focus on a communitywide plan, the topic on most people's minds was the unpopular proposal to move and expand the Charlesview housing complex, with groundbreaking set for the fall.

How, the neighbors asked, would a communitywide plan affect the Charlesview's redevelopment?

The BRA's new planning director, Kairos Shen, stood up and answered: "I am telling Jay Rourke [the BRA official in charge of the redevelopment] we are delaying the scoping determination until we have the first draft of the communitywide plan."

Though the language was bureaucratic, everyone grasped the meaning: The Charlesview project wouldn't proceed without taking the community's planning efforts into account.

The audience burst into applause.

For neighbors who are used to BRA officials who listen quietly and speak in the subjunctive, Shen has been a surprising, and welcome, arrival.

Over the next month, in a series of public meetings that will test the stamina of activists, neighbors will get a clearer idea of whether he'll fulfill this promise.

"The whole room of neighbors gets excited when he speaks because he seems to talk directly and to have some real authority," Brent Whelan of North Harvard Street said after the meeting.

"This is wonderful, that the BRA is taking its responsibility seriously to develop a plan for the whole North Allston-Brighton area," Whelan said, "but there are a lot of questions in the air."

Shen, 43, a native of Hong Kong, became the BRA's planning director in January after coordinating similar outreach efforts for the BRA in the Fenway, in Roxbury, and on the South Boston waterfront.

Interviewed after the meeting, Shen said the differences among the neighborhoods are mostly cultural. Roxbury, for instance, is more diverse than Allston and Brighton, and the Fenway is experiencing "evolutionary" campus expansion from Northeastern University.

North Allston and Brighton, by contrast, are facing a "dramatic shift in their landscape; there's anticipation and a degree of uncertainty," he said, and in contrast to the Fenway, there's a larger population of long-term residents with a tradition of activism.

"The effort here is to keep our eye on the big picture," Shen said. "First, we need to listen to the community, and then put it into a context, to describe their concerns in a solvable format for planning purposes."

The Charlesview jumped to the forefront of debate in November when Harvard University and the development's nonprofit interfaith board reached an agreement to move the 213-unit housing complex to a larger parcel a half-mile up Western Avenue. The site to be vacated is central to the university's expansion plans and sits at a busy intersection.

Among the complaints of neighbors is that the complex, which has a proposed total of 400 units, would be too dense and include too many rentals. Supporters say the development is an environmentally-friendly design and would add affordable housing and open space to the city.

Shen indicates that there's a lot of work left to do before the BRA gives final approval to the project.

"With Charlesview, what has been submitted is Community Builders' first cut," he said. "As the process continues, it's not unilateral. We have to agree on a set of principles that can evolve as the neighborhood changes."

Community Builders is the developer.

Some issues - like how many cars enter a neighborhood or what businesses should be encouraged to locate there - can be managed by planners, Shen said. Others, which he called cultural, are harder. An example Shen cited was the clash between neighbors' sense that Harvard behaves like a sovereign nation, while Harvard feels it's done more than its share for the community.

"My sense is the community is willing to work with us and Harvard," he said. "I hope to develop trust, make sure the community understands the process, and that no one player will always get their way. When you get a system of give and take, you get a real exchange of ideas."

The players' goals might even align, he suggested.

Since 2000, Allston-Brighton residents have participated in "community visioning" sessions with the BRA, as well as strategy meetings with smaller neighborhood groups.

The meeting on March 12 was intended to launch discussions on the North Allston-Brighton Community Wide Plan. In meetings over the coming month, Harvard's expansion and the Charlesview will be among the topics. Combined with the events of the community organizations and the regular round of meetings on such topics as zoning variances and historic districts, an active resident could be out as many as five nights in a week.

"I hope the neighborhood can withstand another barrage of meetings and come up with creative responses," said Tim McHale, a Litchfield Street resident. "Everyone else, the BRA, the developers, the institutions, have a full-time staff. They have to respect the community's time and slow this down."

Felicia Jacques, an official with Community Builders, welcomed the decision to include neighbors' comments. "We look forward to continuing to work with the community and the city."

According to Shen and the planners who attended the session 18 days ago, the largest issues to tackle in the area - which is bound by the Massachusetts Turnpike on the south and the Charles River on all other sides - are: