Boston City Council Hearing:
"The Need for a Planning Department Separate
from the Boston Redevelopment Authority"
Thursday March 20th, 1:00 to 5:00 pm,
City Council Chambers, Boston City Hall 5th floor
The BRA took over the powers of the Boston Planning Board in l960 so that planning and zoning wouldn't get in the way of development. And it hasn't ever since!
Boston is the only US city where the urban renewal agency does the city's planning.
Other cities have recognized the clear conflict of interest in advocating for developers' projects, regulating development, and directing city planning. Under our system, the BRA wears all the hats -- planning, zoning, regulating, granting development tax breaks, reviewing projects, managing public participation, negotiating developers' community benefits, taking public and private property by eminent domain, and selling, leasing and developing of commercial and residential real estate. This broad development role simply isn't consistent with the need for independent comprehensive city planning.
The BRA is not a public agency and isn't accountable to City government.
The BRA is a "quasi-public" authority accountable only to Mayor Menino who appoints the BRA's board and director. The City Council and the public have little say in city planning, or in disposition of public land, and legal recourse against the BRA is limited. As a result, we lack any system of checks and balances or any real democratic process in shaping Boston. A separate City Planning Department would be much more accountable.
The BRA has become a dubious model for development-led "planning."
The BRA claims envious officials come from other cities, eager to see how "planning" and development are done in Boston. Sure, autocratic public officials and developers would love to be able to build with almost no regulatory or public "interference." However, no one would suggest Boston as a model for meeting our housing needs, providing good public services, protecting the environment or enhancing neighborhood character. City planning must drive development and not the other way around.
The last community-based comprehensive planning was the failed "Boston 400."
After years of costly staff work and extensive community participation, the BRA has finally decided not to publish any Boston 400 plan at all. As a result, we are left only with neighborhood or district development plans written just to assist with specific project proposals.
It's time for a change!
We will need a home rule petition to legislatively separate planning from the BRA, so the Mayor and City Council must hear from all over the city that we want a separate planning agency, which will provide unbiased, proactive, comprehensive, long-term, and need-driven planning.
If you can't attend this hearing, please call, e-mail or write to the City Councilors to let them know you support a City Planning Department separate from the BRA.