Northeastern University could get the green light to build 600 new student beds in the next five years if the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) approves the college’s master plan for development tonight at a public hearing.

The school is going before the BRA’s board of directors to gain approval for its Institutional Master Plan (IMP), which would guide new building construction on campus for the next 10 years, including 1,000 new student beds.

The IMP essentially lays out what the university claims are its future needs. This plan says Northeastern’s needs will be fulfilled with 11 new academic, research and housing projects across Boston’s Fenway, South End and Roxbury neighborhoods.

The news that the college was increasing the number of student beds to 600 in the next five years from the originally proposed 300 came as welcome news to neighborhood activists and residents who remember the last time Northeastern’s IMP was up for approval.

In early October, the school was scheduled to go before the BRA board of directors with just 300 beds proposed in the first five years. However, the approval bid was pulled from the agenda at the last minute as BRA staff realized the strong objection that would likely result.

But the BRA’s senior project manager Gerald Autler thinks that has changed.

"Not everybody’s concerns about housing have been fully addressed, but people think 600 is a better minimum than 300," he offered.

Part of the reason the public has been appeased is that the college plans to create a community-based outreach center somewhere near the Ruggles area of Roxbury, said Bill Dellea, a member of United Neighbors of Lower Roxbury. Dellea is the community group’s representative on the task force established to review Northeastern’s master plan.

"Neighbors would like to see the university more involved in the neighborhood and expanding their presence here might help in that regard," Dellea said. "People are very interested in this portal away from the campus as a coordinating office for many community benefits commitments they’re making, like tutoring, entrepreneurship mentoring, and increasing their purchasing budget dedicated to Roxbury and Boston businesses."

The college is certainly looking to expand its presence. The school is especially focused on erecting a proposed 197,000-square-foot Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB) building on a large surface parking lot at the corner of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Columbus Avenue. But Northeastern plans to complete the 720-bed GrandMarc residence hall at the site of the Huntington Avenue YMCA before starting additional projects, according to the proposed IMP.

The school has slowly but surely begun to house more of its undergraduate students on campus. Northeastern has committed to limiting its undergraduate population to approximately 15,000 students and intends to maintain that population over the course of the proposed IMP.

During the prior IMP, the college was authorized to construct three dormitories – West Village Residence Halls B, C and E – as well as the Davenport Commons housing development. Officials also identified two other potential future residential building sites. Amendments to the IMP allowed the school to incorporate additional student housing projects.

In total, those projects will have added 5,039 on-campus student beds once the GrandMarc is finished next year. When GrandMarc opens, the total of university-controlled beds will exceed 8,500, plus the approximately 500 beds in master leases. That, in turn, will exceed the number of beds proposed in the prior IMP. When accounting for students living outside the Boston area, that inventory will accommodate approximately 67 percent of the undergraduate student body seeking housing in Boston, a far higher number than in the past.

However, issues persist in Boston’s Mission Hill and Fenway neighborhoods, where so many of the area’s college students choose to live. Student overcrowding, rowdy partying and public health issues accompany the many student-filled triple-deckers that dominate the Boston landscape.

In an email to other Mission Hill residents obtained by Banker & Tradesman, longtime resident and former Boston City Council candidate Richard Giordano expressed relief, if not excitement, over the number of new student beds that should, in theory, help bring students out of rental apartments and under the roof of university-controlled housing.

"You know that old saying that 50 [percent] of the loaf is better than nothing? Well, I think we got 60 [percent] of the loaf in the first [five] years and the other 40 [percent] in the second [five] years. Considering that when we started this master plan process over a year ago we were at 0 percent, I think that where we are is as good as it is going to get right now."

Northeastern’s proposed 1,000 new student beds would meet the city’s goal of housing 75 percent of undergraduates who seek housing in Boston, according to the IMP. A major project proposed in the IMP would redevelop two buildings Northeastern owns at 458-464 Huntington Ave., known as Burstein and Rubenstein, across from the Museum of Fine Arts.

Replacement housing there could yield an additional 160 beds, but according to the IMP, that would require a dorm tower to achieve a net yield as well as replacing the existing 227 beds. However, after officials from the Museum of Fine Arts expressed concerns about their front door cast in shadow by a towering residence hall, and comments from BRA planners, Northeastern lowered the proposed height to 18 stories from the original plan, which would have been up to 25 stories tall. The Burstein Rubenstein redevelopment has also been identified as a possible candidate for a development partnership between the university and another party, similar to the GrandMarc project.

The college has identified other sites where the housing could potentially be built, but has yet to solidify plans. Media inquiries to Northeastern were not returned as of press time. But Autler said the college is focusing on a surface parking lot the school owns on the brief Burke Street that connects Tremont Street and Columbus Avenue. That property would be the easiest to build on since the college owns it and it’s a vacant lot, Autler said.

Another potential site is a parking lot adjacent to Northeastern’s Ryder Hall, but a dorm project there would be more complicated since there is currently a building there. The school owns the Ryder site, but if it tore down the existing building and reused the whole site, the college would need to replace that academic space elsewhere.

So the college is eyeing other parcels along Tremont Street in the South End to purchase as possible housing development sites.