Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said he is committed to an above-board permitting process as he announced the appointment of a new permanent director of the agency that controls development in the city.
Brian Golden, a former state representative and interim director since January, will lead the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which drew fire for favoritism under the late former Mayor Thomas Menino and was criticized for waste and inefficiency in an outside audit released in July.
Golden joined the BRA in 2009 as executive director and secretary. He is a former New England regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and was the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy during the Romney administration."
"Our goal is to create – for the first time – a predictable and transparent development experience in Boston," Walsh said during remarks Wednesday morning to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. "That requires internal reform."
Walsh said progress has been made toward professionalizing city hall’s permitting agencies, including adding more frequent meetings for the Board of Appeals, which have reduced backlogs for minor projects.
To achieve his previously announced goal of generating 53,000 new housing units by 2030, Walsh said the city will create a pair of new "growth zones" allowing higher-density development along the MBTA’s Red and Orange lines. One will run along Dorchester Avenue between Broadway and Andrew stations. The other will follow the Orange Line from Jackson Square to Forest Hills. Walsh said additional growth zones will follow.
The mayor touted his administration’s pro-development agenda since taking office nearly a year ago.
New construction starts are up 16 percent this year, with $4 billion of new commercial and residential projects under way, and the BRA has approved $3.7 billion worth of development since January including 4,700 housing units. The housing starts are a step toward Walsh’s goal announced in October of creating 53,000 new residential units by 2030 to accommodate a projected population of 700,000, including 44,000 units of workforce housing for people aged 25 to 65.
"We kept the pipeline wide open," Walsh said.
The city is in the midst of a comprehensive zoning review but is making immediate changes designed to eliminate red tape that hinders the growth of small businesses, Walsh said.
"On low-impact uses, like art galleries or bakeries, and on improvements, like take-out service or televisions in restaurants, we’ll flip from an automatic ‘no’ to a thoughtful ‘yes,’" he said.
