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BOSTON - Thursday, August 11, 2022 - Mayor Michelle
Wu and Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison announced today that the Boston
Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) Board of Directors will vote on a
new policy introducing diversity, equity and inclusion into the review
process for large projects in the City of Boston at their August board
meeting later today. This proposed policy would request that proponents
disclose diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plans for large projects
when they are filed with the BPDA through Article 80. The agency believes
this proposed policy would be the first of its kind in the country.
The City of Boston and the BPDA are strongly committed
to advancing opportunities for diversity, equity, and inclusion within
Boston’s economic development community and real estate sectors. With the
approval of the proposed BPDA’s DEI in
Development policy Thursday
night, applicants filing development projects over 20,000 square feet (SF)
would be requested to submit plans to include economic participation,
employment, and management roles for people of color, women, and certified
Minority and Women Owned (M/WBE) Businesses within the scope of their
project.
“Our residents, developers and businesses all want the
same thing: we want to see Boston thriving and growing sustainably, and
connect opportunity to all of our residents, in particular our young
people,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “This new policy is about
ensuring success is spread across our communities, while incentivizing
sustainable growth and creating more transparent processes.”
“Development can be a catalyst to not only bring
positive investment to our neighborhoods, create good jobs and affordable
housing at a range of levels, but also bring opportunities to build wealth
for those who have historically been left out of Boston’s building boom,”
said Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison. “Building a Boston that
is equitable, and representative of the people living here is important to
our agency, and we believe this policy will begin to get us there.”
The BPDA would collect these plans for informational
purposes to understand disparities in the real estate market, increase
M/WBE participation over time, and evaluate strategies to drive greater
impact. This proposed policy builds on the BPDA’s DEI
requirements that ask bidders for
public land parcels to outline a DEI plan. The DEI plan disclosure may also
include initiatives undertaken by the project proponent to meet these goals
within the context of the proposed project.
"The Builders of Color Coalition is pleased to see
the City moving forward in increasing access and diversity in Boston's
commercial real estate sector,” said Colleen Fonseca, Executive
Director of the Builders of Color Coalition. “This proposed policy
stands to empower the development community to highlight and promote
innovative solutions to transform commercial real estate into an industry
of opportunity and diversity."
This proposed policy also builds on the BPDA’s progress
to diversify development on publicly-owned land. For the past several
years, the agency has prioritized using public land for public good, and in
2018 began requiring that developers competing for publicly-owned land
demonstrate commitments to diversity in all aspects of their proposed
project, including ownership. More than 18 projects have included this
criteria, and transformative projects are underway on BPDA-owned parcels in
Nubian Square, Chinatown, the South Boston Waterfront, and Charlestown.
Much of the BPDA’s policy was written alongside the community as part of
PLAN: Nubian Square.
Last year, the BPDA redesigned its procurement process
and adopted an Equitable
Procurement Plan to ensure that M/WBEs
benefit from the agency’s contracts. The BPDA has increased training and
staffing to better equip the agency to successfully diversify the yearly
contract spend, including hiring a Supplier Diversity Specialist, who
reaches out directly to M/WBEs to provide notifications of upcoming
contract opportunities. The BPDA is collecting data to measure the impact
the Equitable Procurement Plan has on diverse contracts, and provides
quarterly updates to the BPDA Board.
Recognizing that it is critical to support a pipeline of
diverse young people interested in jobs in planning and development, in
April the BPDA hosted an interactive event aimed at introducing Boston
Public Schools (BPS) ninth and tenth graders to careers in planning and
development. In February, the BPDA co-hosted an event with the Black Economic
Council of Massachusetts (BECMA)
to introduce Boston-based businesses, architects, engineers, planners,
property managers, and general contractors to opportunities with the
BPDA.
Ongoing transformations at the
BPDA
As the BPDA implements Mayor Wu’s vision, these are some
early actions the agency has taken since Chief Jemison took on his new role
in May 2022. While these transformations are ongoing, there will be more
announcements regarding reforms to the agency in the months ahead.
Planning-led development
As an agency, the BPDA is committed to Mayor Wu’s vision
for people-centric, planning-led development. Chief Jemison has been
meeting with developers of active projects under review sharing a message
that proposals are expected to align with the planning priorities of the Wu
Administration. Chief Jemison recently met collectively with developers who
have current project proposals in Charlestown, to encourage them to ensure
that their projects align with the emerging recommendations that will come
out of the ongoing PLAN: Charlestown process. This guidance is what the
agency has been sharing across the city, and will lead the agency’s review
of incoming projects. In support of this effort, the BPDA is
prioritizing staff resources to completing existing on-going planning
efforts tied closely to affordability, resilience, mobility and social
equity themes such as PLAN: East Boston, PLAN: Charlestown, PLAN: Mattapan,
PLAN: Newmarket and the Western Avenue Corridor Study and Rezoning. These
planning efforts, plus new planning efforts to be announced in the months
ahead, will enable the BPDA to advance planning-led development review
decisions. Concurrently, in areas where active planning and rezoning has
yet to commence, the BPDA will review development proposals with teams led
by professional trained planners, like Chief Jemison, and work alongside
community members to ensure development decisions are transparent,
predictable and accountable.
Hiring and organizational change
Since May of this year, the BPDA has hired or promoted
33 people to lead the agency in this era of transformation. This includes
Arthur Jemison as Chief of Planning and BPDA Director, Devin Quirk as
Deputy Chief of Development and Transformation, Diana Fernandez as Deputy
Chief of Urban Design, Prataap Patrose as Senior Advisor of Long Term
Planning, and Caroline Vanasse as Transformation Manager.
In addition, Quirk and Vanasse are supported by a
transformation team internal to the BPDA which is creating the dedicated
capacity to develop and implement both strategic and operational
recommendations on the future of planning and development in the City of
Boston. The team is staffed by new full time employees, external
consultants, and experienced BPDA employees. The team is actively
recruiting for Transformation Project Manager positions which are posted on the
BPDA website. The transformation team’s work
will help to advance the Wu Administration’s goal of continuing to build
trust with communities through planning-led development while advancing
equity, affordability, and resilience across all functions of the BPDA.
Changes for consideration include reforming planning, development review,
the zoning code, community engagement, intergovernmental collaboration,
governance and organizational structure and more.
Deputy Chief of Urban Design Diana Fernandez begins work
at the BPDA
Deputy Chief of Urban Design Diana Fernandez began
working at the BPDA this month. Under the leadership of Chief of Planning
Arthur Jemison, Fernandez will elevate the importance of urban design, and
champion the transformative power of sustainable and walkable communities
for all ages and abilities. In partnership with Chief Jemison and the
BPDA’s Urban Design Department, Fernandez will work to strategically
transform existing BPDA urban design processes to promote predictability
and quality for both the community members and the development industry.
BPDA adopts decarbonization strategy for all agency
property
In July, the BPDA adopted a new decarbonization strategy
to achieve zero net carbon emissions at all BPDA-owned properties by 2030
for BPDA controlled properties and by 2040 for leased properties. This
strategy builds on Carbon Free Boston and the Climate Action Plan Update,
the City of Boston’s initiative to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in
order to significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute
to climate change.
The BPDA has begun initial steps to execute on this
strategy, including engaging with the BPDA’s tenants, initiating energy
audits, and exploring a solar energy generation pilot on BPDA-owned land.
The BPDA will track results of the strategies identified and continue to
work with other City departments to make adjustments to the policy as
needed.
The BPDA is simultaneously working to assess and
identify strategies to strengthen green building zoning requirements to a
zero net carbon standard for new construction through the Zero Net Carbon
Building Zoning Initiative. The initiative is developing updated zoning for
new construction.
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