BPDA

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is promoting her agenda for action at the state level as a new legislative session begins on Beacon Hill.

After months of internal discussion and debate, one development team has now secured the endorsement of the guiding Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee (RSMPOC) to transform a long-vacant parcel into affordable housing, lab and commercial space.

If memory serves me correctly, it was John F. Collins in the late ’50s, who brought Edward Logue here to Boston to start up the Boston Redevelopment Authority. He arrived in Boston shortly after doing his “urban renewal” vision nearby in New Haven. Tearing down the old because it was old and building what was called here “the New Boston.”

Last week, Mayor Michelle Wu announced new guidelines requiring developers of privately-owned land to report on their plans to hire people of color and subcontract with firms owned by people of color as part of the Boston Planning and Development Agency’s Article 80 development approval process.

Asked during a press conference last week about her pledge to abolish the BPDA, Wu acknowledged that the agency, which originally focused on urban renewal projects in the city’s core neighborhoods is outdated, but was noncommittal on when she would move to dismantle it.

On the campaign trail, candidate Michelle Wu pledged to break apart the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA), separating the planning function from the process of approving individual development projects.

Major real estate development projects are moving forward before Mayor Michelle Wu has made good on her campaign promise to break apart the Boston Planning and Development agency, separating the city’s planning function from the agency, which manages the approval process for large real estate projects.

As 2021 comes to a close, several large-scale projects aimed at economic development in Roxbury, Hyde Park, Dorchester and South Boston were approved by the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) Board of Directors at its Dec. 16 meeting.

Roxbury’s long-vacant ‘Crescent Parcel’ is set to be transformed with new housing units, green space and new church parish space as the city’s development agency moves forward with one of several plans proposed this past spring.

After decades of failed attempts at redevelopment, the city-owned lot in Lower Roxbury known as parcel “P3” is getting another shot at new life.

The Boston Planning & Development Agency today announced a team of community engagement managers serving neighborhoods across the city of Boston.

The BPDA (Boston Planning and Development Agency) is an outdated, unaccountable entity that prevents us from building a more just and climate-ready city. It’s time to abolish the BPDA, transfer its land to city control, and create a real Planning department that answers to the people of Boston.