The Boston Planning and Development Agency will put off a decision on controversial new rules for building heights downtown until next year, while still teeing up a planning initiative for the neighborhood for a December board vote, officials revealed Wednesday.
The agency began working on a planning overhaul for downtown in 2018, but paused that process when Covid-19 hit. Mayor Michelle Wu revived the initiative last year as part of an effort to rethink and revitalize the neighborhood in the wake of the pandemic. The administration has signaled in recent months that it wanted to finish downtown planning by year’s end.
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In draft versions of the new planning for downtown, the most debated proposal has proven to be a 400-foot height limit in one sliver of the neighborhood: the western side of Washington Street stretching from Bromfield Street to Court Street. That area includes the Bromfield site where Midwood Investment & Development wants to put a 23-story office building, as well as the Pi Alley Garage, where the property’s owners are interested in putting a mixed-use tower.
The Boston Preservation Alliance and others have accused the BPDA of “spot zoning” to allow for those two projects while keeping much lower height limits in the rest of the “Ladder Blocks” between Washington and Tremont Street. Midwood’s office proposal has faced criticism for not only clashing with the historic buildings surrounding the property, but for adding more office space in a neighborhood seeing historically high vacancy levels post-Covid.
BPDA officials announced an unusual step during a public meeting Wednesday night: The agency will not include zoning heights in the planning report going to the BPDA board next month, but instead finalize those heights separately later.
