March 27 set for Council's Vote on Planning Department Ordinance & BPDA's future
After one hearing and two working sessions, Council targets a vote on March 27 - before Beacon Hill acts on the BPDA home rule or Article 80 & IAG reforms are finalized
The Wu administration’s push to reform the Boston Planning & Development Agency is likely to face a vote by the Boston City Council at their regular meeting on March 27. That is according to District 1 City Councilor Gabriela Coletta, who laid out the timetable while chairing a working session of the Government Operations Committee on Monday, March 18, that was focused on the planning department ordinance offered by Mayor Michelle Wu. Voting on the planning department ordinance on March 27 would mean that the Council will act on their ordinance before the other components of the Wu administration’s package of BPDA reforms are settled:
The MA State House & Senate are not making a decision on the BPDA home rule petition until at least May 1, and
Major administrative reforms of the Article 80 process & the future of Impact Advisory Groups are still on-going.
There may have been a clue on the fate of the home rule petition before the state legislature at this past weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast. State Senator Nick Collins mentioned how the package of BPDA reforms proposed by the Wu administration was “uniting the City” in his introduction of Mayor Michelle Wu:
This is not the first time Senator Collins has spoken publicly about the BPDA home rule petition. When the home rule petition had its Beacon Hill hearing back in January he expressed a desire to amend it. As veteran political reporter Jon Keller wrote last week about the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast: “behind the harmonizing and joking there's always a serious subtext or two if you know what to look for.”
On Monday, March 18 the second working session on the planning department ordinance by the Government Operations Committee was held - it was virtual and not recorded. This is a departure from the last two Council meetings on the planning department ordinance, with the first working session on March 8 being recorded - you can watch & read that meeting here - and the February 29 hearing about the ordinance also getting recorded - you can watch & read that meeting here and read BPI’s summary of the hearing here.
By the end of the more than three hour working session it was clear that there is more work to do on the ordinance before it comes to a vote. There were a number of issues that Councilors wanted to work on further, including:
Requirements and timelines for reporting data and actions of the new planning department to the Council;
More detail on the language in the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Boston and the Boston Planning & Development Agency Board - this is the mechanism that pays for the he new planning department, with the City of Boston effectively invoicing the BPDA for the work done by the agency’s former staff;
Creating a formal role for the Council in Article 80 modernization and the future of Impact Advisory Groups - the executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission called these two processes “more important” than the planning department ordinance at the February 29 hearing about the ordinance;
Whether to create an independent body outside of the City Council, BPDA, and planning department tasked with overseeing development in Boston, with Councilor at Large Julia Meija drawing explicit parallels to how the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency was designed; and
How to address the possibility of the home rule petition currently before the state legislature being rejected - this discussion made clear that at least some Councilors are prepared to vote for the planning department ordinance without action on the home rule petition before Beacon Hill.
The Government Operation Committee’s next step was not clear at the end of Monday’s working session. Chair Coletta indicated that a third working session could be held on Friday, March 22, if there was a need for it. As of the publishing of this post, that working session has not appeared on the public notice board.
Whether or not that Friday working session is held or not, Chair Coletta made clear that a vote on the planning department ordinance would be held at the Council’s regular meeting on Wednesday, March 27.
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Check out BPI’s previous work monitoring activity on the package of BPDA reforms proposed by the Wu administration: