30-05-2025
Downtown Boston zoning changes could allow buildings up to 700 feet tall
The skyline of downtown Boston could soon be getting a lot taller.
Zoning changes proposed for downtown, stretching from the Boston Common to the Rose Kennedy Greenway, would allow developers to construct new buildings up to 700 feet tall, or about 70 stories, in some areas. Closer to the Common, heights will be capped at 100 to 155 feet.
Currently, the tallest building in that area is Winthrop Center at 691 feet and 52 stories tall, which was completed last year.
The next-tallest is the Millennium Tower, at 684 feet and 60 stories; the South Station tower, currently under construction, will eventually reach 677 feet and 51 stories.
Almost immediately after the final draft zoning was released Thursday, downtown residents began airing their concerns about what it could lead to.
'This is not thoughtful, comprehensive planning - it is a high-rise tower gamble devoid of sound analysis and valid proof of concept,' a group of neighborhood organizations wrote in a shared statement Thursday evening. 'Furthermore, it will not yield meaningful on-site, truly affordable housing and stands to threaten the character of the neighborhood.'
The changes are part of Boston's PLAN: Downtown initiative, part of the larger overhaul of the convoluted zoning code.
The city has said the changes will allow for higher housing density, creating more homes to address the housing crisis. Any residential development will have to set aside 20% of the units created as affordable housing under the existing inclusionary zoning rules.
The original draft of the new zoning was released in January, and from the beginning, it received fierce opposition.
During the initial public comment period, hundreds of residents sent in letters, the vast majority railing against the proposal.
'To me, this plan represents the 'Manhattanization' of Boston, and (I) am strongly opposed to that happening in a city with a totally different history, character, and size from that of New York,' one downtown resident, Esther Messing, wrote in an email to the Planning Department, according to a compilation of public comment letters released by the city.
'We did not buy in a high-rise tower in the Seaport, we chose to be in a neighborhood that we committed to making more of a community,' wrote Anne Peacher, another downtown resident. 'This plan does the EXACT OPPOSITE of what we hoped.'
Under the newest version, the area will be broken up into two zoning districts, 'SKY' and 'SKY-LOW-D.'
The latter, consisting of the corridor closest to the Boston Common and another section closer to the waterfront, has lower maximum building heights to prioritize 'preservation of existing structures and scale' in areas with many historic buildings.
Since the initial January proposal, the map has been changed to include more areas in this district, including Park Plaza, the areas around Reader's Plaza and the Old South Meeting House and the Ladder Blocks along Washington Street.
In the newest draft, the SKY-LOW-D district also allows for planned development areas, a type of development project that introduces specialty zoning, usually more permissive than the existing zoning.
Planned Development Areas will only be possible on lots of at least 1 acre that include a city landmark, and must be predominantly residential.
In the remaining SKY district, building heights will be restricted by laws governing shadows on the Common and Federal Aviation Administration airspace rules, whichever is lower.
This means that in the area farthest from the Common, buildings can reach 700 feet, but as they get closer, the maximum height will decrease.
The Back Bay, Bay Village and Downtown Boston Neighborhood Associations, Beacon Hill Civic Association, Boston Preservation Alliance, Freedom Trail Foundation, Friends of the Public Garden, Revolutionary Spaces and other residents of the area, who released the statement Thursday, said they would be happy with a compromise that extended the lower height restrictions further but still allowed tall buildings further into the Financial District.
'Boston still bears the scars of misguided, top-down planning efforts that led to the destruction of the West End and portions of Roxbury and the South End,' they wrote. 'We cannot afford to repeat those mistakes.'
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Read the original article on MassLive.
