Menino seeks to keep Greenway sunlit
Would limit height of buildings along the corridor park
By John C. Drake, Globe Staff | September 30, 2008
Fearful that the city's newest, sun-splashed park could be transformed by developers into a shadowy canyon, Mayor Thomas M. Menino is pushing to limit the height of office and condo towers along the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.
If successful, the Greenway, which represents a huge opportunity for Boston to redefine its waterfront, would have the same protections from large development as the Boston Common and the Public Garden.
"It's not my job as mayor to help developers become rich. My job is to plan the city," Menino said in an interview. "Public funds created a great open space along the Greenway, and now we have private developers who want to put shadows in that open space. We don't want to allow that."
The Boston Redevelopment Authority put out a call last week for proposals from urban design firms to prepare a study for a new Greenway district. Some observers say the move is overdue, though others worry that a drawn-out study phase will leave developers in limbo just as the pace of development proposals along the mile-long park is picking up.
Menino said the protections are vital, even if they slow the pace of development.
"I don't want to have the Greenway be made a canyon, Manhattanized," he said. "The idea behind the Greenway, besides suppressing the roadway, was to connect the downtown with the waterfront. If you have big structures there, you lose the significance of the connection."
The move comes after city planners faced criticism from neighborhood activists for approving a 23-story residential tower near Essex Street, which will loom over the Chinatown end of the Greenway.
While that will not be affected by new height rules, two other projects with the potential to be very large would be affected.
Developer Donald J. Chiofaro wants to build on the site of a parking garage between the New England Aquarium and the Greenway.
And the Raymond Property Co. is readying plans to demolish the hulking Government Center garage near Haymarket and develop a major complex on the site, although specific plans have not been made public.
Among other developments that could be affected by new restrictions, said authority chief planner Kairos Shen, are the site of the James Hook & Co. lobster warehouse, which was destroyed by a fire in May; and potential redevelopment around Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
In a statement, Chiofaro said he welcomed the development of design guidelines for the Greenway, but would not discuss specifics about how it would affect his plan to replace the parking garage near the aquarium.
"We've been thinking hard about the exciting possibilities for turning this eyesore into an icon for the city and a complement to the Greenway," he said. "We want it to be consistent with well thought-out guidelines for the downtown waterfront development of a world-class city."
Chiofaro has been coy about the size of his project, but Shen said the last proposal he saw was taller than the existing 40-story Harbor Towers condos next door.
"We said what they were proposing was more appropriate in the heart of the downtown rather than at the edge of the most prominent site on the harbor," Shen said.
Stephen G. Kasnet, chief executive of Raymond Property Co., part of a partnership that bought the Government Center garage, said in a statement that developers have a vested interest in making sure development along the Greenway is not excessive.
"We are all in agreement . . . that height should slope away from the Greenway on the four acre-plus parcel," Kasnet said in the statement. "A well-protected Greenway is another reason, in addition to excellent transportation access, that this is the best development site in the city, in our opinion."
How the site would be developed after the Interstate 93 tunnel replaced the old elevated highway has long been a subject of debate. Menino first raised the possibility of height restrictions in March during a speech to the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.
The authority has budgeted $150,000 to hire an urban design consultant who would hold planning sessions and public meetings to develop planning principles that the city's zoning commission or redevelopment authority board could consider. Design firms have until Oct. 20 to offer their services to the city.
The Common and the Public Garden were protected from skyscraper development along their borders in 1993.
The redevelopment authority said the Greenway protection district would run from Causeway Street in the north to Kneeland Street in the south, including Bulfinch Triangle, Government Center, and everything two blocks east and west of the narrow, curving park.
The consultant will be asked to assess the potential impact of any new development not only on the Greenway, but also on the neighborhoods it passes through, including the North End, Chinatown, and the Wharf District.
Shen said it was not clear how long the planning process would take, but he said developers should be aware that the city will look at any high-density or tower developers skeptically in the meantime.
"They should know that we would be very concerned about any environmental impact that their development would have on the Greenway," Shen said. "While the study is going on, we would probably be very conservative."
Reaction to the mayor's plan was mixed. Protecting the Greenway from large-scale development was an important step in making it the city's next marquee open space, said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association.
"Keeping the Greenway and development around it in a scale that allows for the pedestrian experience to be a positive one is really crucial," she said.
And Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, which is in charge of operating the park, said the plan promised to "maintain the Greenway as a vibrant, healthy green space."
But Michael Flaherty, an at-large city councilor who is widely expected to challenge Menino in next year's election, said the move could slow down development projects while the guidelines are drawn up.
"Stalling new investment and new permanent and construction jobs in one of the worst economic environments of recent history appears to be contradictory to the best interests of our city," he said.
"There must be a better solution than postponing investment for a year while the city's hired consultants evaluate the impact to a park that was known about for the last decade."
The process will come too late to affect a Chinatown residential tower approved for developer Ori Ron.
David Seeley, a member of the Mayor's Central Artery Completion Taskforce and a Leather District resident who opposed the Chinatown tower, said the mayor's action was late.
"The city had to have seen this coming," Seeley said. "It's been in the works now for 20 years."
John C. Drake can be reached at
jdrake@globe.com.
