Karyn McFarland, Boston real estate broker and president of the Downtown North Association, and association Executive Director Robert B. O’Brien were part of the two-year effort to complete the North Area Planning Initiative, a comprehensive look at how the Hub’s Downtown North District could look when the elevated Central Artery is removed.

After a decade of dust, ubiquitous barricades and other Big Dig headaches, there finally appears to be a light at the end of the massive project’s literal and figurative tunnel – a Northern light to be exact.

It took nearly two years to compile, but after some 20 meetings with businesses, residents and political representatives, a coalition of civic organizations has just published the North Area Planning Initiative, a comprehensive look at how Boston’s Downtown North District could look when the hulking Central Artery is removed. The overview also envisions prospects for the area once the equally imposing Green Line elevated railway is removed from the core of Downtown North.

The NAPI tome is already receiving rave reviews for its visionary and detailed outlook of how the Central Artery’s demise will change the very face of downtown Boston in the coming years from Chinatown to Downtown North. While its authors stress that the report will only be used as a foundation for planning, with the Boston Redevelopment Authority and Massachusetts Turnpike Authority having the final say on how parcels will be assembled and distributed, the Downtown North plan should help streamline that process, according to many familiar with the results.

“It’s invaluable to have something like this going forward,” said Karyn McFarland, a Boston real estate broker and president of the Downtown North Association. “You can really now get a bird’s-eye view of what you can do prior to putting out the [requests for proposals]” for land reclaimed by the Big Dig project.

Developer Michael Grill concurred with that notion. “This is clearly the most advanced [concept] of all the [Central Artery] planning districts,” said Grill, owner of a property on North Washington Street in North Station. Grill is one of several local developers who hope to compete for sites cleared by the removal of the artery and the elevated railway.

Funded partly by a grant from MassDevelopment, the NAPI report stemmed from a coalition of three groups. Along with Downtown North Association, the Artery Business Committee and Move Massachusetts have steered the planning effort, although Downtown North Association Executive Director Robert B. O’Brien said he believes the report has received such accolades because of its inclusive approach, with the sessions welcoming anyone interested in participating.

Along with several city and state agencies that offered assistance, input has been received from those directly involved in the area, with more than two dozen organizations and private businesses cited for helping in the collaborative effort. Restaurateurs, developers, institutions and civic groups have all banded together to create the NAPI report, O’Brien said. Architects, commercial real estate professionals and urban planners have been among the contributors.

“It’s a tribute to the community-based planning process,” said O’Brien. “And it has been a pleasant surprise because of the scale and the significance of the opportunities” identified in the report. Such a bold view, O’Brien said, “could only have risen out of a community-based approach.”

Indeed, one of the more intriguing aspects of the NAPI report comes in the identification of certain parcels that could be assembled from the depressed artery and MBTA rail line, opportunities that had not been recognized in earlier planning documents. O’Brien and others gave particular credit to NAPI’s professional planners, including Project Manager Bissera Antikarov and urban design consultant David Neilson, whom many praised for the report’s bold conclusions. “He was really able to crystallize the ideas that people had,” with three-dimensional models and audio-visual presentations created to further help people see the future of the area, said Grill

#’Opportunity Realized’

McFarland, who focuses on commercial real estate in Downtown North, said she is especially encouraged by NAPI’s view of transforming the Nashua Street section of the district from a morass of crumbling streets and surface parking lots into a vibrant mixed-use area featuring high-rise residential buildings and parks. “That area is a sin right now,” she said, noting its potential is great considering its close proximity to the Charles River waterfront. Overall, McFarland said she is so impressed with the NAPI conclusions that she plans to make it a cornerstone of her second term as Downtown North president.

“I’m not saying I’m married to every building they are proposing, but they did an incredibly impressive and unprecedented job of showing us the opportunities for the future,” said McFarland. “My goal is to keep this in the forefront of people’s minds as we go forward.”

McFarland was voted into her second term last Thursday at Downtown North’s annual meeting at the Holiday Inn on Cambridge Street in Boston. The meeting also included a special tribute to O’Brien, who is credited with making the association one of the most influential groups of its kind in the city. “We would not be where we are today without Bob O’Brien,” said McFarland. “He’s always thinking about the members of the Downtown North … I’ve never really met anyone quite like him.”

Grill, a member of Downtown North since 1999, agreed that O’Brien has been a driving force in its success. “Bob has done a great job,” said Grill, calling it “the most active downtown business association I’ve ever seen,” and one that commands serious attention from City Hall.

“For developers with proposals in the area, it is a required task to go to Downtown North meetings and share your ideas,” Grill said. “The BRA wants to know that you have met with Downtown North.”

Interestingly, O’Brien said one of the major reasons he was brought into the group in 1990 was due to the Central Artery project, with members of the diverse group foreseeing early on the impact the Big Dig would have on the area. “They recognized they were faced with issues and opportunities that needed to be addressed on a consistent basis,” said O’Brien. “It could be either an opportunity realized or an opportunity missed, and we didn’t want it to be the [latter].”

Throughout that time, there has certainly been plenty of attention paid to the artery and Green Line projects, but O’Brien and McFarland added that the most intriguing aspect of the NAPI report is that it represents the first clear outline of the future of Downtown North, one that is finally beginning to take shape. “The big difference with this is, its no longer talk – it’s action,” said McFarland.