The city is taking its first steps toward traffic improvements around Newmarket, but the project is already facing questions about whether pedestrians or businesses should take priority.

PLAN: Newmarket, a broad project to give the city a clear idea of what residents want for the neighborhood is turning its gaze toward Newmarket’s transportation issues.

It could prove to be a tricky area, with planners forced to balance loading access for the neighborhood’s many small businesses with normal foot traffic and an increasing number of commuters.

A public forum on July 6 saw tension between business owners and residents over who should take precedence.

PLAN: Newmarket has been in consultations since 2019, although it’s just now beginning to address the area’s roads and sidewalks. Officials with the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) have identified improving safety, encouraging business, and accommodating increasing commuter traffic as their priorities for Newmarket.

“We want to get big ideas, things that we aren’t necessarily going to solve through PLAN: Newmarket, but that still could have value,” said city planner Joe Blankenship. “We know that there are legitimate safety concerns for all modes of transportation in the Newmarket areas. We want to address those because Newmarket is an industrial hub we want to preserve and grow. Workers need to get to and from this area.”

The BPDA’s pre-pandemic statistics suggest 60% of Newmarket’s workforce comes from outside of Boston. Calming car traffic is on the city’s list of goals, but officials are also banking on separate projects extending the neighborhood’s bike and bus infrastructure.

Not all of the neighborhood’s residents are convinced all the area’s disparate needs can be met. Sue Sullivan, executive director of the Newmarket Business Association, noted that pushes have been made in the past to improve Newmarket’s pedestrian experience.

“There was an intense effort 13 years ago to redo the sidewalks all along the triangle, handmade bike lanes and crosswalks to maximize how someone could walk through Newmarket Square. But when you have an average of 400 trucks a day, the priority continues to have to be on the truck traffic. The pedestrian experience was already made as good as possible ten years ago,” she said.

“I’ve been hanging around the neighborhood since 1953, and every time the government comes in to help us, they screw up,” said Joel Miller. “Newmarket is a business zone. People don’t come out to picnic on the sidewalk with their bicycles. These are real businesses that create real functions for the city, and businesses should be our number one objective. Not the pedestrians, not the cyclists. The businesses are what pay taxes, what puts kids through college.”

Some, however, thought the divide between businesses and pedestrians was a false dichotomy. Proposals like connecting the area to the South Boston Bypass Road might improve conditions for both groups in a single action. “The connection between Biosquare Drive and the South Boston Bypass Road has been 20 years in the making. Even if it’s just my grandchildren who wind up accessing it, we’re here to think long term,” said Desi Murphy.

“I hear the arguments from businesses. But as a neighbor, these connections can keep some trucks off of Mass and Cass and alleviate traffic. It’s a win for businesses and for residents.”