Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff
City Councilors exercised their newfound oversight of Boston’s reorganized Planning Department to question officials on the effects of land-use changes backed by Mayor Michelle Wu.
District 3 Councilor John FitzGerald challenged officials to provide tangible examples of how the new organizational structure has benefited the city.
“What can we do now that we were not able to do in the prior iteration of this agency?” Fitzgerald asked during a hearing on the new structure.
Chief of Planning Kairos Shen said the major changes include the agency’s responsibility to respond to the City Council and how it deploys its permitting and planning functions.
Under the reorganization which took effect last July, a new Planning Department was created in the city government, taking over the Boston Planning & Development Agency’s planning functions and employees. The BPDA retained its permitting powers under its original state legislation as an independent agency.
“How we access it and how we deploy it is more transparent,” Shen said.
In a presentation, Shen reiterated Mayor Michelle Wu’s goals of the reorganization: to separate the planning and permitting powers while adopting a more predictable zoning code.
“Development in the city should not be market-driven, but driven by the long-term needs and aspirations of the city and the community. That is principle number one,” Shen told the council’s government operations committee.
Boston is in the early stages of a citywide rezoning process, known as Squares + Streets, that seeks to simply the rules for development while allowing higher density multifamily development. The first planning study resulted in rezoning approved for the Mattapan neighborhood last year, and has generated proposals for redevelopment of commercial properties as housing.
“Squares + Streets is a great example of our operating as a true planning department,” Shen said.
But final approval of a controversial plan to rezone portions of the Downtown Crossing area for residential towers up to 500 feet has been delayed amid demands for time for public review of changes unveiled in January. The proposed changes are part of a larger rezoning of downtown Boston that city officials and industry leaders say is crucial to helping the neighborhood recover from structural changes in the office market.
Planning studies also are taking place for Chinatown, Cleary Square and Fields Corner. The BPDA board adopted a Roslindale Square plan in February.
Squares + Streets was intended to reduce the use of variances needed to approve projects. During 2024, applications for by-right projects increased 30 percent, according to the Planning Department’s annual report released this week.
