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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: âWe get more done by 8 a.m. than Boston does in a dayâ - 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 (Published 2023)

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

www.nytimes.com

 

[itchy]

^^ Yes, fair points. Then again, it's the NYT ("lazy, surface-level reporting"), so go figure...

 

[commuter guy]

Globe article about downtown Boston, vacancy issues, etc. Some interesting points in the article:

- there are "90 to 100 empty storefronts scattered throughout the BID area [Downtown Crossing business improvement district] — three to four times as many as before COVID. That does not include the quieter stretch between Post Office Square and the Rose Kennedy Greenway, where there are many additional retail vacancies"

- "a record-high downtown office vacancy rate of 23 percent and rising."

- "Weekly foot traffic in the BID is still down about a third from pre-pandemic levels"

- "Architecture firm Gensler recently estimated that 12 percent of downtown Boston buildings could work for residences, while brokerage Avison Young estimated the number could be substantially higher"

- President of the BID "thinks public incentives will be necessary to make the economics work for these kinds of projects. Maybe the city can drop affordable housing requirements, he said, or provide financial support such as tax relief. "

- the BID sees some "encouraging signs: the restaurant row that emerged along Temple Place, the popular High Street Place food hall. Hospitality and nightclub groups, he said, are eyeing at least two prominent downtown vacancies"

What my daily Diet Coke fix says about downtown Boston right now - The Boston Globe

The decline of the convenience store is a harbinger of a changing Financial District.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[Java King]

- the BID sees some "encouraging signs: the restaurant row that emerged along Temple Place, the popular High Street Place food hall. Hospitality and nightclub groups, he said, are eyeing at least two prominent downtown vacancies"

I think this proves that if you create something unique, people will seek it out no matter the location. High Street Place is really nice, and I think they did a great job of creating unique and interesting food and drink options in an architecturally interesting space.

 

[Stlin]

Here's something new, innovative and interesting: leveraging the proven techniques of a green/climate bank, but with a focus within that not of deploying new energy generation, but instead specifically affordable housing. It's been seeded by $50 million in MassDEP money for MassHousing, which at first blush is going to be targeted first at efficiency upgrades and decarbonization system retrofits for existing affordable housing stock, which have typically gotten much less investment than their market peers, but the banks activities will likely extend in the future to financing new net-zero affordable housing.

Massachusetts Community Climate Bank

A greener future starts with homes.

www.mass.gov

Governor Healey Announces Creation of Massachusetts Community Climate Bank, Nation’s First Green Bank Dedicated to Affordable Housing

$50 million in seed funding intended to leverage federal funding and private sector opportunities to accelerate affordable, decarbonized housing development

www.mass.gov

 

[beck4537]

Boston City Hall, loathed and loved, needs millions of dollars in repairs

The aging brutalist fortress is in need of significant repairs. The city has earmarked $80 million for its upkeep in the most recent capital plan.

www.wbur.org

 

[commuter guy]

The Globe recently seems to be highlighting some economic warning signs for the Boston area, comparing what has unfolded in San Francisco and what it may mean for Boston:

A âdoom loopâ narrative has taken over San Francisco. Hereâs what it means for Boston. - The Boston Globe

Economists have argued that once-dense downtowns in cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and New York could face a kind of post-pandemic death spiral. Can Boston avoid that fate?

www.bostonglobe.com

some excerpts:

“San Francisco is absolutely a cautionary tale,” said Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It’s not 100 percent clear to me that Boston has done everything it needs to do to not be the next San Francisco.” Loh would know. Her work with Brookings tracks how cities have been recovering from the pandemic, and she warns that there are enough red flags here to make any Bostonian nervous.

"Boston actually has vulnerabilities San Francisco does not: It is more reliant on suburban commuters for its workforce, and on commercial property taxes — largely propped up by leases on office towers — to fund its city budget, Loh notes. The troubled MBTA doesn’t help matters."

In S.F. "...to entice building owners to rethink their space, they’ve stripped out much of the red tape and requirements San Francisco — much like Boston and Cambridge — has long used as public policy tools. The city is still keeping some affordable housing requirements for anyone attempting to build residential units downtown, but other rules that made sense in a strong market — such as requirements for bike parking or open space or locally owned retail — are falling by the wayside, at least for now."
"It’s a shift in priorities that stands in sharp contrast with what’s playing out City Hall in Boston, where Mayor Michelle Wu is increasing affordable housing and energy efficiency requirements for new construction. And while Boston has launched a $9 million grant program to help fill vacant storefronts, it’s also asking more from developers in the form of increased linkage fees. In San Francisco anyway, Dan Sider, chief of staff in the city’s planning department, said the market requires something more flexible and less demanding."
“As a city [San Francisco] we’ve had this recent history of very bespoke zoning regulations. We’ve been really picky and we’ve had the luxury to be picky,” he said. “And you know, this moment in time, I think a big piece of our responsibility is as a regulatory agency to get out of the way and let change and recovery and the next iteration happen with as little friction as possible. The pendulum has begun a very clear and rapid swing in the opposite direction at this point.”

"A city like Boston can learn from the seismic shifts happening in San Francisco, said Carlo Ratti, an MIT urban planning professor who heads the SENSEable City Lab within the university’s urban studies department.
“Boston isn’t doomed to the doom loop,” he said. That’s because two of our major industries — universities and biotech — rely heavily on people meeting in-person. “You can’t Zoom into a lab or a frat party.”
But “eds and meds” alone, he said, aren’t enough to sustain the city in the long run. Boston needs its downtown office market to bounce back. Thus far, we’ve been insulated by long-term leases signed before the pandemic, that have kept rents — and building values — fairly stable. But eventually, those leases will run out, and when that happens, the commercial real estate tax base in the city — which was budgeted at $1.8 billion this year — could crater. Already, there are signs that things could get worse before they get better: A survey released last week by the Massachusetts Business Roundtable found 47 percent of respondents plan to pare back their local real estate footprints within the next two years."

Larry DiCara stated “I really think the city has to be dramatically proactive,” he said. “Life is not necessarily only about facts, it’s about messaging. And for a lot of people, the messaging they’re getting from City Hall is discouraging them. They’re looking at their options and because one does not have to work in downtown Boston anymore. It’s a different world out there.”

 

[stick n move]

One thing Im noticing is that the “middle class” people who earn just a regular wage seem to be getting hit the hardest as far as cost of living. The people who make too much to qualify for housing vouchers but not much more than that arent getting any relief. Its basically at the point where you have to be completely rich or completely poor to afford to live within the 495 belt.

In the past few years Ive really seen it picking up where it seems like everybody I know has moved away to find cheaper housing. I think with the amount of colleges around its not as obvious as it otherwise would be, but theres definitely a hollowing out happening. Even myself as an example I really love it here and when I got out of the military chose to come back here to live, but even Im getting to the point where Im barely making it and may have no choice to move if it gets worse.

It really sucks and Im encouraged by the mbta communities act and by the amount of apartment construction Im seeing, but I dont know if its going to be enough. It really blows my mind how the housing crisis isnt the #1 issue right now that every politician is trying to solve. Theres definitely in the last few years more progress happening, but when I see how in my parents area in framingham they proposed a lot of new apartments and a massive amount of ppl showed up and screamed and tried everything they could do to block it from happening, it just makes me wonder if its going to change. The future depends on it but I hope its not too late when we collectively realize this.

 

[Charlie_mta]

One thing Im noticing is that the “middle class” people who earn just a regular wage seem to be getting hit the hardest as far as cost of living. The people who make too much to qualify for housing vouchers but not much more than that arent getting any relief. Its basically at the point where you have to be completely rich or completely poor to afford to live within the 495 belt.

In the past few years Ive really seen it picking up where it seems like everybody I know has moved away to find cheaper housing. I think with the amount of colleges around its not as obvious as it otherwise would be, but theres definitely a hollowing out happening. Even myself as an example I really love it here and when I got out of the military chose to come back here to live, but even Im getting to the point where Im barely making it and may have no choice to move if it gets worse.

It really sucks and Im encouraged by the mbta communities act and by the amount of apartment construction Im seeing, but I dont know if its going to be enough. It really blows my mind how the housing crisis isnt the #1 issue right now that every politician is trying to solve. Theres definitely in the last few years more progress happening, but when I see how in my parents area in framingham they proposed a lot of new apartments and a massive amount of ppl showed up and screamed and tried everything they could do to block it from happening, it just makes me wonder if its going to change. The future depends on it but I hope its not too late when we collectively realize this.

Only the rich or the poor can afford housing, but not the middle class, has been the case in Cambridge for decades. The rest of the area inside I-495 is catching up and becoming that way, as you said. Maybe eastern Mass will become a specialized niche community.

 

[jklo]

has been the case in Cambridge for decades.

That's not really true. Cambridge was cheap in 2005. Two I guess counts as decades but also wasn't that long ago.

One thing Im noticing is that the “middle class” people who earn just a regular wage seem to be getting hit the hardest as far as cost of living. The people who make too much to qualify for housing vouchers but not much more than that arent getting any relief. Its basically at the point where you have to be completely rich or completely poor to afford to live within the 495 belt.

Or they need to shack up. That's where things are headed.

 

[#bancars]

One thing Im noticing is that the “middle class” people who earn just a regular wage seem to be getting hit the hardest as far as cost of living. The people who make too much to qualify for housing vouchers but not much more than that arent getting any relief. Its basically at the point where you have to be completely rich or completely poor to afford to live within the 495 belt.

In the past few years Ive really seen it picking up where it seems like everybody I know has moved away to find cheaper housing. I think with the amount of colleges around its not as obvious as it otherwise would be, but theres definitely a hollowing out happening. Even myself as an example I really love it here and when I got out of the military chose to come back here to live, but even Im getting to the point where Im barely making it and may have no choice to move if it gets worse.

It really sucks and Im encouraged by the mbta communities act and by the amount of apartment construction Im seeing, but I dont know if its going to be enough. It really blows my mind how the housing crisis isnt the #1 issue right now that every politician is trying to solve. Theres definitely in the last few years more progress happening, but when I see how in my parents area in framingham they proposed a lot of new apartments and a massive amount of ppl showed up and screamed and tried everything they could do to block it from happening, it just makes me wonder if its going to change. The future depends on it but I hope its not too late when we collectively realize this.

Things seem to be moving in the right direction in terms of leaders at the state level talking about housing as a priority issue, and you often see the cost of housing come up in polls about top issues in Massachusetts, but I think the reason there's so much inertia in many communities is that incumbent homeowners benefit from the housing crunch as it inflates their property values. That's one inherent weakness (among many) of the Anglo-American housing system.

 

[beck4537]

Time, money, tax breaks. What Boston can learn about creating a downtown that never sleeps. - The Boston Globe

The commercial real estate industry is looking at how the world’s most famous Financial District became a 24-7 neighborhood and whether the strategy of converting office buildings to housing can be replicated in other cities.

www.bostonglobe.com