Boston Proposes Parking Bans in Neighborhoods Around Franklin Park on Stadium Game Days

A new City of Boston traffic plan proposes instituting seven-hour parking bans in neighborhoods surrounding Franklin Park on game days at White Stadium. Under the city's plan, non-permitted vehicles will receive $100 tickets and be towed.

The city's traffic plan, released in April, would create a parking district for White Stadium. This area would extend between Erie and Washington streets in Dorchester, Warren Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard in Roxbury, down Chestnut Avenue and Atherton Street to Green Street, and Washington Street to Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain.

On game days at the stadium, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, parking would be restricted to permit holders who live in the district from four hours before game time until one hour after the games. Given the league's 7 p.m. game times, the parking ban would likely be effective from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on game days.

Although residents in the district can buy parking permits from the city, they'll receive only one guest pass for each car registered to their address. That restriction would make social gatherings on game days impossible, said Roxbury resident Victoria Williams, chair of the Ward 12 Democratic Committee.

Dion Irish, the city's chief of operations, emphasized that the plan city officials released has not been finalized.

“This is a draft plan,” he said in a statement to The Bay State Banner. “I definitely don't want anyone to think that this is final. We do want to hear what are the concerns or thoughts that people may have about what has been proposed.”

Critics of the White Stadium plan believe the underlying issue isn't necessarily parking but the lack of community engagement around the White Stadium project. They claim that City officials didn't solicit community input before releasing an RFP to redevelop White Stadium but entertained conversations with Boston Unity Soccer Partners, the primary respondents to the RFP, instead.