Roslindale Square gets official city plan calling for more housing, possible realignment of key roads and a movie theater

The Boston Planning Department this week approved a "Squares and Streets" plan for Roslindale Square that includes zoning changes to make it easier to add housing atop the square's one-story commercial buildings, engineering studies of realigning Washington and Poplar streets along Adams Park and creating a more plaza-like feel to the intersection of Belgrade Avenue with South and Roberts streets.

The plan also calls for investigating ways to keep Roslindale Square the home of small, locally focused businesses - including more shops and services catering to Black, Hispanic and immigrant groups. And it proposes an organized effort to "encourage the build-out of a small movie theater/flexible entertainment space with a local film operator as the tenant." Roslindale Square has not had a movie theater since the Rialto closed in 1973, when other local businesses were also closing up as people began patronizing the malls along Rte. 1 in Dedham.

In addition to making it easier for Square building owners to do what the owners of Wallpaper City and the Chilacates building have already done - restore residential floors torn down when Roslindale Square had become a desolate bypass on the way to somewhere else - the plan would ask developers of new units to include a higher percentage of units with two or more bedrooms as part of their affordable-housing requirements.

And the city will look to use money from its own affordable-housing fund to acquire lots or buildings around the square that could be sold at reduced cost to developers to put up affordable housing. In recent years, developers have put up a number of affordable-apartment buildings in Roxbury's Nubian Square on what were formerly city-owned vacant or parking lots. The city says it would also work with the non-profit Southwest Boston Community Development Corp. or other non-profits on housing proposals in the Roslindale Square area.

The plan calls for engineering studies to determine whether to restore Washington Street between Corinth Street and Cummins Highway into a two-way road - which in turn would let the city turn Poplar by Adams Park into a "shared" resource that could be blocked off during the weekly farmers market and for public celebrations and other events - along with more trees and a permanent bike lane.

These changes would reduce traffic on Poplar St, simplify bus routing, reduce residential cut-through traffic, and improve operations at intersections. Bus stops would be relocated as needed to allow for passenger pick up and drop off along southbound Washington St.

If two-way operations are restored on Washington St, explore opportunities to shorten pedestrian crosswalks, create new separated bike connections, provide green infrastructure, and create space for community programming. Specific areas to consider include the intersections of Washington St/South St and Washington St/Poplar.

If two-way operations are restored on Washington St, explore expanding the Poplar St sidewalk along Adams Park and/or making Poplar St a shared street. A shared street along Adams Park would allow for pedestrian and bike travel, in addition to local vehicle travel and curbside parking/deliveries.

The plan estimates a formal engineering study would take up to two years. The complete re-make of Poplar Street into a "shared" resource, however, could take five to ten years, the city says.

The plan also calls for a re-do of the complex intersection of Belgrade Avenue with South and Roberts streets in a way that would enlarge the microscopic Alexander the Great park into a space large enough for public events - and to create an area in front of the Square Root that would allow patio seating - but says that while "interim activation" - similar to the way a section of Beech Street was blocked off for a plaza - could be done within one to three years, a complete, permanent re-do could take up to a decade.

Also proposed:

Flip the one-way directions of Firth Rd and Bexley Rd to control left-turning vehicles more safely at an existing traffic signal. This change will improve overall operations and reduce conflicts between turning vehicles and people walking and biking.

Square off the Belgrade Ave intersections of both Pinehurst St and Amherst St to reduce crosswalk distances, slow turning vehicles, expand space for bus stops, and create green infrastructure opportunities.

The plan also calls for the city to work with the MBTA to figure out how to increase the frequency of trains on the Needham Line - and to reduce the fares for passengers who use the Roslindale Village station, something Mayor Wu first started fighting for while still a city councilor. And the city committed to working with the T to upgrade the dismal pedestrian underpass at the station with new lighting and a mural.

Also on the to-do list: Do something about flooding on the streets around Healy Field.

Complete proposal.