Photo by Jeremiah Robinson | Boston Mayor's Office

State officials have given their backing to Boston leaders’ controversial decision to scrap a waterfront plan that would have enabled a pair of high-profile towers to rise along the harbor’s edge, Mayor Michelle Wu said yesterday.

Wu was speaking on GBH News’ “Boston Public Radio” show. The Boston Business Journal first reported her comments.

In response to a question from a caller who identified himself as a North End resident, Wu said state officials have signaled they will accept her mayoral predecessor Kim Janey’s decision to scrap its municipal harbor plan. Before a formal recognition of the move can take place, Boston must provide the state with “some substitute language describing what we’re replacing it with and the process we’ll be putting in place until a more fleshed-out version is there,” Wu said.

The plan in question creates zoning for 42 acres of land abutting the harbor and came under criticism from some city residents and environmental advocates for allowing The Chiofaro Co.’s 900,000-square-foot office and residential skyscraper called “The Pinnacle,” planned for the site of the Chiofaro-owned Harbor Garage. Moriarty Partners relied on the same zoning when it proposed a 357-room hotel tower and restaurant on the James Hook & Co. lobster pound property last year, as  well.

The plan’s opponents took issue with permissions for building heights 11 times greater than the standard allowed under the state’s Chapter 91 waterfront and wetlands legislation, although the state specifically allows harbor plans to increase allowable heights. They also charged the plan did not do enough to prioritize climate change concerns, an objection proponents disputed given the coastal flooding protections the plan mandated in the Chiofaro building.

When she announced her withdrawal of the municipal harbor plan last summer, Janey promised a new planning process that would prioritize creating “a more resilient, equitable, accessible and economically vibrant downtown waterfront.” In her radio appearance, as she did on the campaign trail, Wu indicated she shared that vision.

“We’re going to continue working to make sure that every opportunity we have in Boston – because It’s so rare with a such build-out city – to make sure every opportunity we have that’s transformational when it comes to land use and thinking about bringing together climate resiliency and equitable access across the city and the chance to highlight everything Boston has to offer for residents and visitors. We’re going to lean into that opportunity,” she said.