Developer Donald Chiofaro would be required to pay for improvements to Central Wharf and other waterfront properties in exchange for approval of his $1 billion development on Boston’s Harbor Garage site.

Developer Donald Chiofaro and two other property owners seeking to build projects next to Boston Harbor have been presented with the bill.

Chiofaro could be required to pay $18.5 million for upgrades to the Boston central waterfront in exchange for approval of his $1 billion two-skyscraper proposal.

It’s the culmination of a debate that’s brushed up against the third rails of Boston real estate: the effectiveness of the Boston Redevelopment Authority as a long-range planning entity, competition between public and private interests along the revitalized waterfront and the timing of the window snapping shut on a heady real estate cycle.

Chiofaro bought the harbor garage property on East India Row in 2007 for $153 million. He currently wants to build a 1.3-million-square-foot mixed-use project including two towers with office, hotel and residential space on the 1.3-acre garage site. The BRA in its permitting role has countered with a maximum size of 900,000 square feet.

At either size, the site is subject to state Chapter 91 regulations that protect public access to the waterfront and limit the size and density of development. Three years in the making, the draft municipal harbor plan released this month requires Chiofaro to pay for the following “offsets” because the 600-foot-tall buildings would exceed lot coverage and height guidelines:

• $7 million for renovation of Central Wharf in conjunction with plans developed by the New England Aquarium, which has been a vocal opponent of the Chiofaro towers.
• $4.3 million to renovate a BRA-owned parcel between the waterfront and the garage for public open space.
• $3.8 million to convert the Chart House parking lot into open space.
• $3.2 million to renovate Old Atlantic Avenue for public open space.
• $250,000 to help the city of Boston design new publicly-accessible facilities and amenities to activate the waterfront and upgrade water transportation.

The draft harbor plan also proposes offsets for a proposed 305-foot-tall residential tower on the James Hook & Co. seafood pound property and an expansion of the Boston Long Wharf Marriott hotel.

The Hook Lobster developers would be required to provide outdoor and indoor public accommodations and ground-floor space set aside for water-dependent uses.

The hotel would be required to upgrade the pedestrian passage through its lobby and build an indoor waiting room and ticket office for harbor ferries. The hotel has proposed 20,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space on the ground floor.

A BRA citizen advisory committee that’s been working with consultants Utile Inc. on the harbor plan since 2013 is expected to vote whether to approve it on Sept. 28. Matthew Beaton, the state’s environmental secretary, has the final say.

It’s not clear whether the mitigation proposed for the Harbor Garage site is a moot point, given that Chiofaro has stated publicly that the BRA’s 900,000-square-foot maximum for the site is not financially feasible for him and his financial partner, Prudential Real Estate Investors. Chiofaro did not respond to requests for comment through a spokeswoman.

“If Boston wants to have a world-class waterfront, it has to change the game so the planning process drives development, not the other way around,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel for the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation. “From our perspective, that is much more important for public benefits than whatever economics work or don’t work for the developer.”

Piecemeal Planning Approach Under Fire

The state’s Chapter 91 regulations set maximums of 50 percent lot coverage on waterfront sites, all of which would be exceeded by the three developments. Chiofaro’s project and the Hook Lobster site tower would occupy 70 percent of their lots; including the expansion, the Marriott would cover 80 percent of its parcel. The Chiofaro and Hook Lobster proposals also exceed building height standards.

But communities can allow denser waterfront development if they adopt municipal harbor plans that require developers to add public amenities such as parks and water transportation facilities.

CLF’s Shelley said the BRA’s approach has been reactive and myopic. As far back as 1984, when many of the prime waterfront parcels remained undeveloped, a city planning study recommended large Olmstead-style parks and green space along the harbor.

“It was a very exciting plan, and that plan has never been implemented other than the Harborwalk,” Shelley said. “This (harbor plan) is making a bunch of promises. Whether it is ever implemented is highly unlikely.”

The New England Aquarium has opposed the development for potentially hurting attendance and marine life during construction. Aquarium spokesman Tony LaCasse said the organization is still reviewing the draft proposal and has no immediate comment.

The draft plan was panned by advisory committee members last week as lacking imagination and ambition.

“I read that the benefits we get out of (the Marriott expansion) are some improved areas in the interior courtyard. And a 500-square-foot ferry terminal, which is half the size of my living room,” said Bud Ris, a committee member and senior adviser at the Barr Foundation. “It’s not that transformative.”

The $1.6 billion Barr Foundation donated $810,000 to Boston Harbor Now, The Trustees of Reservations and the BRA for waterfront planning last spring.

“In the absence of a long-term, comprehensive vision – and robust, well-resourced entities that protect and steward it – Boston’s waterfront has been at the mercy of rapid, and often uncoordinated, parcel-by-parcel development,” Barr Foundation President James Canales wrote in a blog post.

Trustees of the neighboring Harbor Towers condominiums said they won’t support the current plan.

“It seems that you’re rewriting Chapter 91 and I just don’t understand the justification for it,” said Meredith Rosenberg, a committee member and Harbor Towers trustee. “It hasn’t been presented in any way that we can understand.”