City Councilor Lydia Edwards announced on Monday to the Charlestown Chamber of Commerce that her upcoming City Council hearing on One Charlestown will not only be in Charlestown, but also will take the rare step of letting the community speak before the developers.
“These Council hearings traditionally start with departments and developers,” she said. “I’ve chosen to start with the community.”
That meeting will take place at 6 p.m. in the Knights of Columbus Father Mahoney Hall, and one of the most important constituencies Edwards said she would call on are the actual residents of the Bunker Hill housing development. The Charlestown Residents Alliance, which represents the tenants of Bunker Hill, has been quiet so far about many of the recent changes to the project, as well as the Community Consensus Plan presented by some members of the community.
However, Edwards said it’s time to hear from them.
“I want to hear from everyone, but I especially want to hear from those who stand to lose everything,” she said.
Edwards said among those that will also be speaking will be developers Joe Corcoran, the proposed partner of Leggat-McCall, the Boston Housing Authority and the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
She said they hope to answer all the questions about how the project got to where it is, including the RFP for 2,400 units and the presentation in the first plan in 2016 of 3,200 units.
She also said that all of the documents she has received will be available to the public.