SMAMS Vision

A New Vision for the SMAMS District

In the spring of 2004, SMAMS led a community planning project to develop a vision for the future of our district. Gail Sullivan Associates (now known as Studio G) urban planners facilitated the process. More than 100 people, including residents and merchants, spent two intense Saturdays on this project, and merchants also attended a separate session to focus on their ideas. To view the final report on this project, please click here. (This is a large file and may take several minutes to open.)

The community stressed five goals for the district:

  1. Make Peabody Square and the entire SMAMS district safer for pedestrians, drivers and cyclists
  2. Make the public territory of Peabody Square and Dorchester Avenue more welcoming as a destination
  3. Maximize potential community benefits from the MBTA’s renovation of Ashmont Station and the proposed Trinity Financial development at Ashmont
  4. Improve the “public face” of businesses in the SMAMS District, and increase the mix and variety of businesses, in order to increase foot traffic and draw more customers
  5. Celebrate the area’s history and promote its present culture and resources

For the details on these goals, including a recommendation to reconfigure the Peabody Square street layout, please see Sections 4 and 5 of the project report.

Based on the strength of the community’s participation, Mayor Thomas Menino and the Mass. Bay Transportation Authority committed $150,000 and $25,000 respectively to fund a design study. The City later committed over $2 million to build the improvements, which will re-route several streets, overhaul the traffic-light system, and add much-needed green space. Thanks to a partnership among SMAMS, the City’s Environment Department and the Charles River Watershed Association, the project will include a pilot “Green Street” storm water management system.

The project is nearing completion of the design phase; construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2009, in coordination with the MBTA’s reconstruction of the adjacent Ashmont Station.