Prepare for Tomorrow: Council votes on BPDA's future at March 27 City Council Meeting
After 1 hearing and 3 working sessions planning dept ordinance faces unanswered questions and opposition in the community and Council - BPI highlights what to know about the Council vote & BPDA reform
One of Boston Policy Institute, Inc’s major goals when it was launched has been to monitor the big processes shaping policy in Boston and Massachusetts. Since launching there have been two processes that BPI has focused on:
The agreement between the City of Boston and the state’s Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, which prevented a state takeover of Boston’s public school system; and
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s push to reform the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA).
Scroll to the bottom of this post for links to BPI’s work and several important articles from the press about the package of BPDA reforms.
On Wednesday, March 27, Mayor Wu’s BPDA reform package is facing its biggest hurdle since being launched in her 2023 State of the City address: the Boston City Council is voting her administration’s ordinance to create a new City planning department. It is docket #0257 and is the third item on page 3 of the agenda packet. The planning department ordinance that the Council is voting on this Wednesday is complicated and consists of two major components, each of which is unique:
The ordinance calls for staffing the new planning department with the BPDA’s current employees, and if passed will bring hundreds of folks who currently work for the quasi-public BPDA over to the City of Boston - page 36 of the agenda packet for Wednesday. Boston’s planning department and planning board power were both moved over to the BPDA through state legislation passed in 1960, and this ordinance modifies parts of that law.
The ordinance has been touted by the Wu administration as “budget neutral” because of the unusual funding mechanism it creates for the new planning department where the City effectively charges the BPDA for the work of its former employees. The BPDA pays for that work through an agreement between the City of Boston and the BPDA’s board. The City Council repeatedly requested the potential language in that agreement, which Government Operations Committee Chair & District 1 City Councilor Gabriela Coletta detailed in her chair’s report - page 41-44 of the agenda packet. In testimony at the planning department ordinance’s first working session on March 8 Boston’s Treasurer-Colletor Ashley Groffenberger told the Council that “the MOA is not drafted” and that appears to still be the case - Groffenberg is Speaker 18 and speaks at the 41:08 mark in the transcript.
This is just the latest action on BPDA reform in a year that has been full of action on the issue. In addition to this week’s vote on the planning department ordinance, there are four other processes going on:
A home rule petition dealing with BPDA’s corporate strucutre, urban renewal powers, and retirement benefits for the BPDA employees moving over to the City passed the City Council in Febraury 2023 and had its first hearing on Beacon Hill in January 2024. The home rule petition’s committee has not yet made a decision on whether or not to advance it, extending the deadline to May 1.
There are two bureaucratic processes - the Article 80 modernization and the ‘Squares & Streets’ rezoning intiatitve are both on-going - check out the articles from the Dorchester Reporter and Boston Globe at the end of this post for more on each.
The Planning Advisory Council was created with an executive order signed by Mayor Wu in January 2023 and is a new body in the City of Boston set up to coordinate planning across City departments. Katharine Lusk was hired as the Executive Director and co-Director of the PAC in May 2023 to “establish a coordinated Citywide vision for Boston’s future and create accountability for delivering on that vision.” To date the PAC has not appeared to issue any public work and Lusk did not testify on the planning department ordinance. BPI submitted a public records request for Katharine Lusk’s emails on 3/18/24 to get more insight on PAC’s role in the ongoing effort to reform planning and development in Boston. The City’s Public Records Center acknowledged the request but has not provided any further updates.
Tomorrow’s City Council meeting starts at 12 PM and will be carried live on the Council’s YouTube channel. Make sure to watch BPI’s AI-generated transcript feed for a complete transcript and expect this issue to be included in BPI’s next Weekly Transcript Round-Up this coming Friday, March 29.
Check out BPI’s work monitoring the package of BPDA reforms along with links to important press coverage:
BPI: Preparing for Boston's BPDA Hearing on Beacon Hill - Jan 19, 2024
BPI: Coverage from Beacon Hill's BPDA hearing & City Council Committee Assignments released - Jan 24, 2024
Boston Globe: Mayor Wu wants to overhaul Boston’s rules for what can be built where - Feb 20, 2024
BPI: Preparing for Thursday: Boston City Council's first BPDA reform hearing of 2024 - Feb 28, 2024
BPI: Weekly Transcript Round-up: Planning Department Ordinance Edition - Mar 01, 2024
Dorchester Reporter: Planners, residents grapple with the Article 80 re-boot - Mar 07, 2024
BPI: March 27 set for Council's Vote on Planning Department Ordinance & BPDA's future - Mar 19, 2024
Boston Herald: Downtown Boston coalition urges City Council to vote down Michelle Wu’s planning ordinance - Mar 19, 2024
Dorchester Reporter: Wu's ‘Squares + Streets’ plan gets boost from BPDA vote - Mar 20, 2024
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