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[#bancars]

BPDA begins process to develop Resilience, Affordability, and Equity metrics for development project | Boston Planning & Development Agency

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BPDA begins process to develop Resilience, Affordability, and Equity metrics for development projects
Mar 23, 2023

Agency issues challenge to understand how developers are addressing these goals in current projects


The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) today announced a challenge to our development and community partners via a questionnaire that staff will use to develop Resilience, Affordability, and Equity metrics for proposed projects. The challenge is in response to Mayor Wu’s directive to focus the Agency’s resources toward Bostonʼs urgent needs of today—Resilience, Affordability, and Equity. The development community will be integral to advancing solutions to these urgent challenges. This questionnaire will help the City understand what developers are already doing in their projects to advance these goals. The BPDA is also soliciting input on potential metrics and standards from organizations who represent community development or who work to advance Resilience, Affordability, and Equity.


The purpose of this challenge is to gather information as a first step in this process. The developer questionnaire will allow developers to demonstrate how their projects will implement existing Resilience, Affordability, and Equity-related plans and programs, advance best practices, provide benefits beyond the parcel-level, and measure their impacts. The questionnaire is voluntary and non-evaluative. The questions are designed to elicit responses that will help the Agency understand the ways development can support and enhance data-driven Resilience, Affordability, and Equity goals, and how the Agency can better incentivize development projects that will contribute to the Administration’s long term vision for Boston.


Once responses to the questionnaires are collected and reviewed, the BPDA will create a framework to assess development projects and incentivize projects that make significant progress on Resilience, Affordability, and Equity. The resulting framework, or “scorecard,” will be presented to the public for feedback and input before it is implemented.


“Boston has tremendous resources to address our most pressing needs, and we’re grateful to all helping to invest in our city and help us grow with Resilience, Affordability, and Equity at the core,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “I want to thank our staff in planning and development review for beginning work on this scorecard which will help make the process of building in Boston predictable and sustainable.”


“This challenge is the first step in a comprehensive process to ensure that development in Boston prioritizes Resilience, Affordability, and Equity from start to finish,” said Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison. “We look forward to working with the development and advocacy communities on this to ensure our City’s built environment is meeting the needs of Bostonians.”


Developer questionnaire responses are voluntary, and can be submitted through an online form at any stage of project review. This form requests that development teams go beyond written narrative and include data that show their proposed project will advance climate resilience effort, contribute to the affordability of housing and small business creation, and meet the need for Bostonians to share equitably in the growth of the city.

DEI in Development Disclosure Update

Since adopting the DEI in Development Policy in August 2022, 19 projects have submitted new filing documents with the BPDA and all have provided the requested disclosure to highlight their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plans. The disclosures include a wide range of strategies from offering equity shares to minority investors, to awarding one third of design and soft cost contracts to M/WBE firms for affordable housing. Going forward, the BPDA will integrate the responses to the DEI Disclosure into the Resilience, Affordability, and Equity challenge. Integrating the two efforts will allow the Agency to create a consolidated database of initiatives to advance these important goals and comprehensively evaluate strategies to drive greater impact. Projects looking to submit a DEI Disclosure should do so using the Resilience, Affordability, and Equity questionnaire.

Article 80 Improvements

The BPDA has announced two projects to improve how communities, developers, and the BPDA work together to shape the city through development review. The first is a technical analysis of Article 80 of the Boston zoning code and the BPDA’s internal development review operations. The second seeks to improve community engagement practices in Article 80 and develop recommendations to make the process more equitable, inclusive, predictable, and transparent. Both projects will be informed by robust stakeholder engagement with Mayor Wu’s Article 80 Steering Committee, BPDA and City staff, elected officials, and community members. Community engagement related to these projects is expected to start in late spring.


As part of Mayor Wu’s broader vision for reforming planning and development in the City of Boston, the Mayor will restore planning as a core function of City government. Staff that is currently housed at the BPDA will move to a new City Planning & Design Department, which was announced by Mayor Wu in her 2023 State of the City. As the City Planning & Design Department is being formed, the BPDA will continue to build out a strong team and lead new initiatives that deliver on the Mayor’s vision for resilient, affordable, equitable growth.

 

[stick n move]

Interesting report. Within the rankings Boston was top 10 in almost every category except infrastructure (no surprise there) and government & regulatory. If we could just get a basic level of functioning infrastructure this region could take off even further.

Absolutely, if the CR was electrified and nsrl completed our regional rail system would immediately become one of the best in the country.

 

[shmessy]

It'll never be as Big, but Boston may be denting some of NYC's psyche.........

New York City ad campaign takes a swipe at Boston: ‘We get more done by 8 a.m. than Boston does in a day’ - The Boston Globe

Introduced last week, the campaign is meant to represent a new era for New York City, reminding people that they can make a difference and come together. But even New Yorkers said targeting Boston was a “bad idea.”

www.bostonglobe.com

"....... “If they’re name-checking Boston, we’re living rent free in their heads just a wee bit,” another observed. “Sorry to me this reads like an ad for Boston,” a commenter agreed. ......."

.

 

[stick n move]

Boston creating fan zone for Bruins, Celtics playoff games at TD Garden

Boston creating fan zone for Bruins, Celtics home playoff games

The Boston Playoff Hub, a car-free zone, will be set up on Canal Street as a place for fans to gather before and during Bruins and Celtics games at TD Garden.

www.wcvb.com

“Starting Saturday, approved Canal Street restaurants and bars will be able to extend their outdoor patios onto the sidewalk.

"It just makes this street look a hell of a lot nicer and it's just going to bring more people down here," said Nolan Hamilton, general manager of Hurricane's at the Garden.

Scores, a new bar and restaurant, is looking to take advantage of the fan zone when it opens in a couple of weeks at 166 Canal St., the spot where The Fours operated for 44 years before it closed in 2020.”

 

[#bancars]

Mayor Wu is rolling out the neighborhood coffee hour series again. Chance to chat with mayor and get some free Dunks!

2023 Neighborhood Coffee Hour Series Announced

Mayor Wu’s Neighborhood Coffee Hours are a unique opportunity to speak directly with the Mayor and staff from City departments about open space and their neighborhoods. Through these conversations, and a suggestion box at each site, Mayor Wu looks forward to hearing how the City of Boston can...

www.boston.gov

 

[DominusNovus]

I’ve heard from people at a major back bay company that Boston is offering a tax credit to businesses to entice them to get people back into the office, instead of WFH. Anyone have any good info on that?

 

[stick n move]

A new Boston restaurant was just named among the best in the world
It's located in Brighton.

The Koji Club in Boston.

“Boston’s first sake bar is the toast of the globe, according to Conde Nast Traveler.

The travel magazine just named the The Koji Club, which opened last year, among the 21 best new restaurants in the world as part of its 2023 Hot List, a curated list of the world’s best new hotels, cruises, restaurants, cultural destinations, and more.

The Brighton hangout is “as cozy and authentic as anything you would find in Japan,” the publication wrote.”

Here is what Conde Nast Traveler wrote, in part, about The Koji Club:

“Koji Club’s bartenders offer an encyclopedic knowledge of sake’s multiverse, and the menu breaks down the spirit’s diversity from mild to wild, using cheeky descriptions such as, ‘Like walking through a temple in Kyoto wearing Le Labo’s Santal 33.’ By the end of each night, you’re brushing elbows with strangers, making friends, and, whether you’re already a sake aficionado or just looking for something to do for date night, walking away with something you didn’t know before you went. ‘This city lost half of its Japanese restaurants during the pandemic,’ said DiPasquale recently. ‘If I can just help people learn about and appreciate sake, that will be a job well done.”

— Conde Nast Traveler

https://www.boston.com/food/restaur...-best-in-the-world-conde-nast-traveler/?amp=1

 

[Justbuildit]

It’s not technically transit, so not sure where to post but there’s a beautiful clipper ship
in Seaport for the next few days. Check out the crew on the rigging.

Looks like it’ll cross the Atlantic in the next week or so!

Clipper Stad Amsterdam - Luxury Cruises and Business Sailing

Experience romance and luxury on board the Clipper Stad Amsterdam. Available for luxury cruises, charter, corporate events & exclusive business meetings.

www.stadamsterdam.com

 

[#bancars]

Is it just me or is this piece reaalllly bad?

• Portraying Mayor Wu's war on outdoor dining in North End as justified "crackdown" representative of what residents want (i.e. standing up to the big bad restaurant owners who are ruining the neighborhood)
• Similarly one-sided discussions / interviews re: rent control and bike lanes
• Portraying her election by "a sweeping 64 percent of voters" as indicative of the electorate endorsing her agenda while neglecting to mention that turnout was 32%

I like a lot of Mayor Wu's platform but this article strikes me as lazy, surface-level reporting.

As Boston’s New Mayor Seeks Big Changes, Old Power Brokers Push Back

Mayor Michelle Wu is striving to keep her campaign promises, but powerful lobbies are throwing up roadblocks.

www.nytimes.com