HYM Investments is seeking approval to build 6.1 million square feet of commercial space and 10,000 housing units on the 161-acre Suffolk Downs site spanning parts of East Boston and Revere. Image courtesy of HYM.

A civil rights complaint filed Monday accuses the Boston Planning & Development Agency of violating federal law by failing to ensure non-English speakers can participate in discussions about the future of the city’s biggest development site in a generation.

The complaint filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights says the BPDA hasn’t translated important documents or provided “competent and complete” oral interpretation at meetings in the review process for the development of the Suffolk Downs site.

Developers have proposed turning the former horse track in East Boston and Revere into a new neighborhood with shops, office space, parks, condos and town homes. The complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on behalf of two groups that are pushing for the project to include more affordable housing and climate-resilient construction.

The complaint asks HUD to halt the BPDA’s review of the project pending departmental investigation and suspend any further disbursement of federal funds until the BPDA beefs up community engagement efforts aimed at non-English-speakers.

A BPDA spokeswoman said in an email that it has “prioritized creating a public process for the Suffolk Downs proposal that is inclusive for all.”

Bonnie McGilpin said there has been Spanish language interpretation at every public meeting for the proposal and two public meetings exclusively in Spanish. The agency has also translated meeting materials and documents about the development, she said.

Thomas O’Brien, managing director of the group developing the site, said it has gone “above and beyond” to make the planning process “open and accessible to all.”

“At a time when we are facing a housing crisis, it is unfortunate that anyone would want to hold up progress on this creation of much-needed housing, which will strengthen the communities of Revere and East Boston without displacing a single resident,” O’Brien said in a statement.

Neighborhood groups and leading progressives on the Boston City Council have been critical of HYM’s proposal for the site, and have pushed for more affordable housing and other measures to make sure the project is inclusive of current East Boston residents, many of whom are Latino and working class. The current plan would see the equivalent of 17 percent of the site’s units dedicated to affordable housing either within the project or in the surrounding neighborhoods.