Mattapan residents, businesses press council over Blue Hill Avenue redesign; oppose center-running bus lane

Councilor Julia Mejia, chair of the Boston City Council’s Committee on Post Audit, Government Accountability, Transparency, and Accessibility, opened a June 10 community hearing in Mattapan to review the Blue Hill Avenue Transportation Action Plan, saying “the process, as I always say, is just as important as the outcome.”

The hearing drew residents, business owners and neighborhood leaders who said the project as currently drafted — particularly a center-running bus lane — would remove curb parking, complicate deliveries and endanger seniors and people with limited mobility. They urged more funding, clearer mitigation for small businesses during construction and better, multilingual outreach before the city advances a final design.

Why it matters: Blue Hill Avenue carries a dense mix of transit riders, small Black- and Brown-owned businesses, churches and homes. City planners and the MBTA say the corridor serves roughly 37,000 daily bus riders and that congestion causes large daily delays for transit. The administration says the concept design would shorten many crosswalks, add new signalized crossings and create dedicated bus right-of-way to improve speed and reliability, while preliminary city estimates put available local capital at $18 million and a federal RAISE grant at $15 million. Project estimates presented in public testimony ranged from the city’s cited figure…