On Tuesday evening, Director Brian Golden and staff from the BRA joined the West Roxbury Neighborhood Council to discuss the latest development trends in Boston and West Roxbury, the ongoing Imagine Boston 2030 citywide planning effort, and the BRA's development review process. The standing room only crowd, which included State Senator Mike Rush, had a chance to get a better sense of how the development climate in their neighborhood compares to Boston as a whole and how the BRA is working with Mayor Walsh's administration to guide growth in the city.

The director touched on the tremendous population growth that Boston has experienced recently and the need for more housing to accommodate new residents. His presentation showed how development trends have affected different neighborhoods within the city, including West Roxbury. The city is in the midst of an unprecedented building boom, one that saw building activity increase from $1.7 billion for all projects under construction across the city in 2012 to over $4 billion in 2015. From 2009 to 2015, the BRA approved seven new projects in West Roxbury that total approximately half a million square feet of development. Neighborhoods like the downtown core, South Boston, Fenway, East Boston, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain saw the approval of dozens of new projects consisting of several million square feet of development in each neighborhood during the same period of time.

 

Golden and staff also explained how the BRA decides whether to recommend proposed projects to the agency's board of directors for approval as part of the so-called Article 80 process. This decision making includes input from residents, community organizations, and local businesses, in addition to expert feedback from the BRA's planning and urban design and other city agencies.