Rules for 700-foot skyscrapers across downtown will have to wait

Boston Globe

16-07-2025

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Shen said the Planning Department would aim to have the zoning amendment in front of the BPDA board in September.
The zoning changes are part of PLAN: Downtown, which the board adopted about a year and a half ago, but haven't yet been formalized into city code.
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The plan area stretches across the Financial District and Downtown Crossing, from the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway to Tremont Street along the Boston Common and Public Garden, then
down to Arlington Street and Tufts Medical Center.
The stretch of downtown includes at least one station for every MBTA subway line and the Silver Line bus, much of the Freedom Trail and the colonial-era Old State House and Old South Meeting House, and effectively encapsulates the core of the economic engine that powers Boston and New England, but which has come under increasing stress since the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, its evolution has been closely watched by city and state officials alike, along with downtown residents, preservationists, and others.
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Molly Donahue, the director of advocacy for the Boston Preservation Alliance, said at last month's public meeting that allowing for PDAs 'isn't ideal.'
'We are concerned that the proposal has been presented without analysis of the potential impacts on some of Boston's most significant cultural sites and buildings,' Donahue said.
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Any zoning rules, the Planning Department said, would be superseded by state shadow law and federal airspace rules that limit building heights in parts of downtown. Those laws, especially the shadow laws, have proven fungible before, particularly amid the development review process for what's now Winthrop Center.
Former governor Charlie Baker in 2017
Another critic of changing the shadow law for Winthrop Square was the Friends of the Public Garden, a public-private partnership representing the Garden, Common, and Commonwealth Avenue Mall. At the time, the city reassured the Friends that it would commit to clear zoning downtown — but this plan isn't that, said
board chair Leslie Adam. The proposed zoning would allow for incremental shadow impacts that would leave the Common 'significantly shadowed' during much of the year, she said.
A zoning plan under consideration by the city could ease the way for much taller buildings in Downtown Crossing.
David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
'We are disappointed that there is no clarity or commitment in the zoning — that they continue to say that they're going to rely on state shadow laws when we know, in fact, that that has not protected us in the past," Adam said. 'The Boston Common is the oldest park in America, and tells the story of our nation and our city.'
Rishi Shukla, cofounder of the Downtown Boston Neighborhood Association, said Tuesday that a downtown coalition has been meeting with city officials in recent weeks to work through differences.
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'This is a once in a generation opportunity to shape the heart of Boston,' Shukla said. 'We've always been committed to working with the administration and other stakeholders to get this right. That remains true.'
Catherine Carlock can be reached at