PLAN: Downtown

I think it's still tentatively slated for the BPDA meeting in September. My read is that one of Wu's vulnerabilities is the annoying downtown tower neighborhood groups (same ones who hosted the NYC skyline themed Kraft fundraiser) and they are willing to spend what it takes to...I guess remove bike lanes and keep their views? So probably being slow walked until closer to or after the election to avoid electoral risk.

On a related note, Congress St in Fort Point has been slated for a full redevelopment for over 2 years and not a shovel has been picked up yet. It will be a traffic nightmare and explicitly removes parking and lane width for bike lanes and pedestrian improvements, and my read is again that the wealthier, connected Downtown/Seaport crowd will throw more support behind Kraft because of this nano culture war.

So yeah, delay tactics for political safeguarding is my read. My bet is it gets watered down, does nothing to win approval from the opponents, ends up worse overall, and passes after the November meeting with little fanfare.
 
Actually, it looks like a new proposal has been made by the city for PLAN: Downtown. From what I can tell, it's basically identical to the last set of zoning changes with two tweaks:
  1. The language around compliance with the state shadow law is clarified. I'm not sure if this means much in practice, but will maybe mollify the people that view sunlight on the Common as the biggest issue facing the city.
  2. Some plots along Washington St have their zoning changed to encourage more residential development. Buildings over 200 ft would have to be at least 60% residential.
Given how minor these changes are, it seems like throwing a bone to the opposition and not much else. Maybe the city is still willing to adjust to feedback, but at this point, I'd be surprised.



1757035156948.png


Downtown Draft Zoning Updates Summary
Downtown Draft Zoning Text and Map Amendments (Final Draft)
 
www.bostonherald.com

Critics make last-minute push to Mayor Wu to reject downtown Boston skyscraper plans

A coalition of downtown Boston residents is ramping up the pressure on the Wu administration to reverse course on a “destructive” zoning plan that would clear the way for new buildings to tower up …
www.bostonherald.com www.bostonherald.com
The Downtown Boston Neighborhood Association blasted out an open letter it and other members of the coalition sent last Thursday to Mayor Michelle Wu, ahead of a vote the Boston Planning and Development Agency Board is set to take this week on the proposed zoning regulations.
“PLAN: Downtown was meant to reimagine the heart of Boston,” the coalition wrote in the letter. “Instead, your proposed plan reveals a striking lack of creativity, perspective and vision, and will not work. … Boston would be better off without this destructive plan.”
The BPDA board is set to vote Thursday on the downtown zoning plan, after opting against taking action at its July meeting. The delay, according to downtown resident Tony Ursillo, was designed to give the city and coalition more time to come to an agreement on the proposed zoning.
[...]
Ursillo has said the proposed changes would end up producing the “Manhattanization” of downtown Boston, an assertion the city’s planning chief Kairos Shen pushed back on when speaking with the Herald in June, saying such a notion is “simply inaccurate.”
On Friday, Shen described the latest criticism to the downtown zoning plan as an “overreaction,” and said the city has adequately addressed all of the issues raised by the coalition since meetings between the two sides began last January. He told the Herald the city is prepared to move forward with a planning board vote on Thursday.
Click to expand...
 
I hope these people are roundly ignored. With no electoral risk there's no need to compromise on any of the points these people have argued for in bad faith. Yes there are historic buildings downtown but it is so obviously the best place for new housing in all of New England.

Big day Thursday!
 
It did in fact make it on Thursday's BPDA Board meeting Agenda (items #18/19): https://bpda.app.box.com/s/su9f9o73ltf8u3j5iwmhipq4hm9ma2k1

P.S. in the Herald's-gonna-Herald department, the paper did publish this anti-PLAN op-ed: https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/0...n-to-earth-housing-solutions-not-skyscrapers/

Of course, at the end of the day, the Herald is a scandal sheet dedicated to reactionary populism... and what could be more scandalous than a handful of additional towers in a built environment already defined by them? Oh, the horror!

For those blocked by a paywall, it is, predictably, a masterpiece in gaslighting: "New towering buildings would presumably be slotted for housing or mixed use, but would they be affordable to the people who work in the retail and service industries catering to the revitalized area?"

So I guess we shouldn't build any housing anymore, huh, given the paramount importance of adhering to that sacred criteria? Another mind-bending attempt at suspending the law of supply-and-demand...
 
The zoning plan still requires approval from the Zoning Commission.
The BPDA board voted 4-1 to approve the plan — Landsmark was the sole objection — and 5-0 to send it on to the Zoning Commission, where it will get a full public hearing.
The commission next meets Oct. 22.
Click to expand...
www.bostonglobe.com

More housing. More shadows? Downtown zoning plan wins key city OK at last. - The Boston Globe

Downtown Boston has not had a comprehensive zoning change in decades, and the update comes at a time when the neighborhood has struggled to find its post-pandemic footing.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
 
stefal said:
The sensationalist headlines are flowing right in. I wouldn't advise clicking to give them more ad revenue.
‘Generational impact’: Historic decision clears way for 70-story skyscrapers in Downtown Boston
Excellent journalism here.. The average reader doesn't know the details within PLAN Downtown, and they won't know any additional info from this article, only other people's thoughts on it, 90% of them negative.
Click to expand...
Whenever I see journalists botch an article about a subject I understand well, I begin to ask myself what they're getting wrong in the 90% of the other articles I read.
 
stefal said:
Excellent journalism here.. The average reader doesn't know the details within PLAN Downtown, and they won't know any additional info from this article, only other people's thoughts on it, 90% of them negative.
Click to expand...
It's astonishing to me, the extent to which journalism has devolved into simply repeating a bunch of uninformed opinions, as though that constitutes some sort of meaningful research and analysis.
 
stefal said:
The sensationalist headlines are flowing right in. I wouldn't advise clicking to give them more ad revenue.
‘Generational impact’: Historic decision clears way for 70-story skyscrapers in Downtown Boston
Excellent journalism here.. The average reader doesn't know the details within PLAN Downtown, and they won't know any additional info from this article, only other people's thoughts on it, 90% of them negative.
Click to expand...
PLAN Downtown.jpg


What's truly spectacular about the endless repetition of the "70-story skyscrapers" mantra is it shows that every.single.last.journalist. who regurgitates it couldn't be bothered to take the ten seconds to study these maps from the final PLAN: Downtown iteration which just got passed. Which demonstrate that PLAN: Downtown effectively bars the way for any 70-story (700-ft.) towers anywhere in its zoning regime. I mean, there's lazy... and then there's this.
 
Yea this is going to have such a minimal effect its worth asking if it was even worth the effort in the first place.
 
stick n move said:
Yea this is going to have such a minimal effect its worth asking if it was even worth the effort in the first place.
Click to expand...

The answer to that question is likely no. Similar to Plan Charlestown, Plan East Boston, Plan JP/Rox, etc….an enormous amount of political and administrative capital expended to achieve “consensus” that never came and to end up with a watered down, overly complex plan that barely moves the needle.
 
The major opponents of PLAN: Downtown have set up a website to facilitate one-click mass letter writing in opposition of the proposed plan.


The text of the email is there, so I've conveniently made my own adjustments if anyone wants to send in a few messages before the meeting tomorrow morning at 9AM:

__________________

TO:

zoningcommission@boston.gov

jeffrey.hampton@boston.gov

aaron.michlewitz@mahouse.gov

ed.flynn@boston.gov

erin.murphy@boston.gov

gabriela.coletta@boston.gov

henry.santana@boston.gov

jay.livingstone@mahouse.gov

julia.mejia@boston.gov

lydia.edwards@masenate.gov

Nick.Collins@masenate.gov

ruthzee.louijeune@boston.gov

sharon.durkan@boston.gov

info@BOSdowntown.org

info@friendsofthepublicgarden.org

info@nabbonline.org

info@bhcivic.org

info@thefreedomtrail.org

info@revolutionaryspaces.org



SUBJECT: Please vote YES on PLAN: Downtown Zoning



Dear Zoning Commissioners,

I am writing to ask you to vote YES on the PLAN: Downtown zoning amendment at the Zoning Commission meeting on October 22nd. The city has completed a rigorous process preparing and adjusting PLAN: Downtown and it is ready for approval. Objections to a reasonable zoning amendment for the one area of Eastern Massachusetts that is well-suited for tall buildings have been considered and further objections are unwarranted.

Downtown Boston should have clear zoning that allows buildings up to 500 feet in height or more, by right, in between Washington and Tremont Streets (Ladder Blocks) and between Stuart and Boylston Streets (Park Plaza). If approved, these new buildings will create a reasonable gradient of heights from the tallest part of our skyline to historic areas such as Back Bay, Bay Village, and Chinatown, where taller building is inappropriate.

By voting YES, you are avoiding unnecessary delays that will only exacerbate the housing crisis and slow the construction of badly needed new housing. The current affordability requirements ensure that housing units or dollars will be allocated to badly needed lower income and missing middle housing; voting NO and delaying rezoning will grind this progress to a halt and prevent anything positive from happening, which seems to be the goals of the main opponents. Voting YES is what our city deserves, and with your vote, it can be achieved.

Thank you in advance for considering these points with independence and professional discretion.

Sincerely,

[Enter Name]

[Enter Address]
 
Justbuildit said:
The major opponents of PLAN: Downtown have set up a website to facilitate one-click mass letter writing in opposition of the proposed plan.


The text of the email is there, so I've conveniently made my own adjustments if anyone wants to send in a few messages before the meeting tomorrow morning at 9AM:

__________________

TO:

zoningcommission@boston.gov

jeffrey.hampton@boston.gov

aaron.michlewitz@mahouse.gov

ed.flynn@boston.gov

erin.murphy@boston.gov

gabriela.coletta@boston.gov

henry.santana@boston.gov

jay.livingstone@mahouse.gov

julia.mejia@boston.gov

lydia.edwards@masenate.gov

Nick.Collins@masenate.gov

ruthzee.louijeune@boston.gov

sharon.durkan@boston.gov

info@BOSdowntown.org

info@friendsofthepublicgarden.org

info@nabbonline.org

info@bhcivic.org

info@thefreedomtrail.org

info@revolutionaryspaces.org



SUBJECT: Please vote YES on PLAN: Downtown Zoning



Dear Zoning Commissioners,

I am writing to ask you to vote YES on the PLAN: Downtown zoning amendment at the Zoning Commission meeting on October 22nd. The city has completed a rigorous process preparing and adjusting PLAN: Downtown and it is ready for approval. Objections to a reasonable zoning amendment for the one area of Eastern Massachusetts that is well-suited for tall buildings have been considered and further objections are unwarranted.

Downtown Boston should have clear zoning that allows buildings up to 500 feet in height or more, by right, in between Washington and Tremont Streets (Ladder Blocks) and between Stuart and Boylston Streets (Park Plaza). If approved, these new buildings will create a reasonable gradient of heights from the tallest part of our skyline to historic areas such as Back Bay, Bay Village, and Chinatown, where taller building is inappropriate.

By voting YES, you are avoiding unnecessary delays that will only exacerbate the housing crisis and slow the construction of badly needed new housing. The current affordability requirements ensure that housing units or dollars will be allocated to badly needed lower income and missing middle housing; voting NO and delaying rezoning will grind this progress to a halt and prevent anything positive from happening, which seems to be the goals of the main opponents. Voting YES is what our city deserves, and with your vote, it can be achieved.

Thank you in advance for considering these points with independence and professional discretion.

Sincerely,

[Enter Name]

[Enter Address]
Click to expand...

Post to Reddit, it will get traction
 
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