Image courtesy of Boston Planning and Development Agency
New zoning districts designed to encourage investment in downtown Boston and simplify development reviews are recommended in the final draft of the PLAN: Downtown study.
The Boston Planning & Development Agency will present the findings at a virtual meeting tonight. Overarching themes of the proposed zoning plan include promoting dense, mixed-use development and supporting small businesses.
The downtown study was launched before COVID-19, but took on new urgency after the pandemic disrupted office work and brick-and-mortar retail businesses. In a related program, Mayor Michelle Wu announced last month that the city will offer tax breaks to developers for office-to-residential conversions.
The PLAN: Downtown study recommendations offer “consistent and fair baseline and bonus heights” for new projects, the draft plan states, replacing a mishmash of more than 20 height limits.
“This accumulation of zoning districts, PDAs, and height restrictions has resulted in a regulatory context that is difficult to understand and does not effectively promote re-development. This leads to unpredictable distribution of mitigation and benefits across the neighborhood,” the report states.
In their place, the plan creates four new subdistricts: the Ladder Blocks, Wharf District, Bay Village and a district including parts of Downtown Crossing, the Theater District and Financial District.
Projects that offer public benefits such as open space, climate and resilience infrastructure, and small business support are eligible to receive density bonuses.
In the largest zoning subdistrict, spanning portions of Downtown Crossing, the Theater District and Financial District, density bonus-eligible projects would have no maximum heights. Projects still would be subject to laws limiting shadows on Boston Common and FAA regulations protecting flight paths.
Chinatown was part of the original study, but will be the subject of a follow-up zoning study to address the neighborhood’s specific needs, the BPDA said.
BPDA staff will present the findings at a virtual meeting tonight at 6 p.m.
