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BRA announces public engagement plan for urban renewal extension process

Mar 24, 2015

Residents encouraged to attend community meetings and join conversation on social media


The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) is moving forward with the public process to seek ten-year extensions for 14 of the 16 expiring urban renewal plan areas in the city. Urban renewal began as a post-World War II federal program to address widespread blight and disinvestment in America’s cities. But it has evolved in recent decades as a more nuanced tool for redevelopment and revitalization, managed by states and municipalities, to spur economic development in urban areas across the country. Boston is one of 31 other cities and towns in the Commonwealth that has active urban renewal plans.

In December, BRA Director Brian Golden and senior officials briefed the Boston City Council on the extension effort. Since then, the agency has created a dedicated website, www.bostonurbanrenewal.org, to provide information about urban renewal and the ongoing extension process. The website features an interactive map with details about the plan areas, significant development projects facilitated by the urban renewal, historical information, and a place for people to make suggestions about how these planning tools can be used most effectively to cultivate vibrant neighborhoods. The website will be updated with content throughout the public process.

Three community kick-off meetings will be held in the coming weeks to introduce the broader public to how urban renewal tools are used currently. The meetings, each of which will offer the same content, are scheduled for the following dates and locations:

  • Tuesday, March 31: Boston City Hall (BRA Board Room, 9th Floor) at 6:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, April 2: Blackstone Community Center, 50 W Brookline St, at 6:30 p.m.
  • Monday, April 13: Madison Park High School (Cardinal Hall), 75 Malcolm X Blvd, at 6:00 p.m.

Following the series of community kick-off meetings, the BRA will organize another round of public workshops in late spring to solicit ideas for updating the goals of the various urban renewal plan areas. More public meetings are scheduled for the summer and fall to synthesize the public’s feedback and present the future of urban renewal in Boston. The extension process is expected to last through the end of the year.

The BRA is also encouraging people to participate in the conversation about urban renewal on Twitter by tweeting @BostonRedevelop using the hashtag #URBoston.

“We look forward to facilitating a robust conversation with residents across the city about the future of urban renewal in Boston,” said Director Golden. “This is an opportunity to overcome the stigma associated with heavy-handed urban renewal strategies of the past and create a shared set of goals to successfully guide redevelopment efforts for years to come.”

The original plans and goals from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were very prescriptive, but this extension process will focus on soliciting ideas to create a more flexible framework for urban planning and economic development. The revised goals will better reflect the contemporary urban environment by incorporating new realities such as climate change and resiliency, for example, which were not a consideration in Boston’s historical urban renewal plans. Insights gained through the public process can inform the citywide master plan that the BRA will undertake later this year. Boston's last general plan, completed in 1965, was an outgrowth of the urban renewal planning efforts that began prior to the creation of the BRA in 1957.
 
A total of 18 urban renewal plan areas, spanning approximately 3,000 acres (or ten percent of land in Boston), are currently active. The BRA intends to allow smaller urban renewal plans in Allston and a portion of Downtown to expire, as the redevelopment goals in those places have been met. Two other plan areas, in the West End and around North Station, are not set to expire, but the BRA will explore aligning their expiration dates with the other active plans.

The Commonwealth’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) approved a one-year extension to the active plans in January to allow for the ongoing public engagement process, meaning the majority of Boston’s plans will expire in April 2016. The BRA is not seeking to create new urban renewal areas or expand existing plans as part of this extension process.

Boston’s urban renewal plans were last extended in 2005, and the BRA hopes that the current effort will be much more inclusive, thoughtful, and transparent. Following the public engagement process, the BRA will seek approval from the agency’s Board of Directors, Boston City Council, and DHCD for the ten-year extension of the plans.

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