The planning process, which was led in part by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the Roxbury Neighborhood Council and local state legislators, focuses on specific issues such as economic development, traffic and transportation improvements, job creation and urban design concepts.

Meredith Baumann, spokesperson for the BRA, tells GlobeSt.com that the impetus for the plan was the realization that the neighborhood needed a community-based plan to help it navigate its future, especially after the area was rezoned on 1989. "The city felt it was in the neighborhood's best interest to sit with the community and come up with a shared vision," she notes. Baumann says that one of the major components of the plan is a 15-person oversight committee that will be created to see that the plan is implemented and its goals achieved.

The seven parcels slated for development are all currently vacant or underused, according to Baumann. They are either city- or state-owned and can support a mix of uses. "There are so many different uses contemplated," says Baumann. For instance, on one of the parcels that is located in the Crosstown area on Tremont Street the plan recommends ground floor retail use occupied by locally owned stores. In a parcel on the corner of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Washington Street the city wants to see a retail component, commercial space and residential units on the upper floors.