BPDA Board Chair Priscilla Rojas

Responding to the national debate on institutional racism and criticism from elected officials, the Boston Planning & Development Agency is creating a new position to focus on diversity issues.

The director of diversity, equity and inclusion will oversee the efforts as part of a new budget line item beginning in fiscal 2021, Director Brian Golden said Thursday.

“I’m committed to this fight. I’m having these conversations in my personal life and professional life, conversations that I have not participated in a life lived almost entirely here in Boston,” said Golden, a former state representative from Brighton and the agency’s director since 2014.

City Councilor Lydia Edwards has faulted the BPDA for its role in planning of the Seaport District and is asking the agency to require a larger affordable housing component as part of the proposed 16.5 million-square-foot Suffolk Downs redevelopment. This week, Edwards asked the BPDA to provide specifics on its commitment to diversity in its own operations and development planning.

And City Councilor Michelle Wu last year called for abolition of the 63-year-old agency, criticizing it for poor planning and failure to respond to community needs. 

Golden cited internal efforts such as the agency’s work with consultants YW Boston to offer diversity and inclusion training and creation of plans to promote equity in hiring and promotion.

The agency also has set a goal of increasing minority-owned businesses’ access to contracts and boosting the redevelopment of publicly-owned land, a policy it adopted in 2018.

At its latest virtual meeting, the BPDA directors approved one new development project: a 4-story, 18-unit condo project at  3992-3996 Washington St. in Roslindale.

Directors also authorized staff to license BPDA-owned land for use by small businesses such as restaurants to expand their footprints to promote distancing during COVID-19, subject to licensing board approval.