To download the BRA's Fort Point 100-Acres Plan and PDA Master Plan, click here.
To view an index of items regarding Fort Point 100-Acres planning, click here.For the previous item in this thread, click here.
For the next item in this thread, click here.
To read a Boston Globe article published today about the 100 Acre Plan, click here.
8/11/06
BRA Final Draft of Fort Point Plan modified at 11th hour; no public discussion
Final Draft marred by last-minute revisions, despite five year process and 100 public meetings
The Boston Redevelopment Authority Board has approved the Fort Point "100 Acres Master Plan". Also, the BRA has released its publication of a Final Draft of a "Fort Point Planned Development Area (PDA) Master Plan".
Five years in the making, the Final Draft 100 Acres Master Plan included policy revisions quietly inserted between May 2006 and August 2006, a number of which were never before publicly discussed or supported during nearly 100 public planning meetings.
Background
The PDA Master Plan is based on the 100-Acres planning process (2001-2006), a public process that resulted in publication of the "100-Acres Master Plan" (approved yesterday). The PDA Master Plan, once adopted, will overide existing zoning and the existing Interim Planning Overlay District (IPOD). A draft of the PDA Master Plan was first published in July 2006, and two public meetings were held in South Boston to guage public support. No changes were made to the PDA Master Plan as a result of public comments between its initial draft publication in July 2006 and the final draft published by the BRA in August 2006. Numerous changes were made in the PDA Master Plan and 100 Acres Final Draft that were never discussed in prior public meetings.
Although major provisions of the 100-Acre Plan and PDA Master Plan were discussed publicly during the five-year planning process, the rationale for a number of last-minute modifications were never raised. These changes constitute a significant policy shift for the BRA, distancing the agency from its former recognition of Fort Point's established historic features and diminishing prospects for the long-term development of a critical mass of residential developmen on the South Boston Waterfront.
Numerous modifications to the Final Draft of the 100 Acre Plan include:
1. BRA supports multi-story additions on top of Fort Point's historic buildings, inserted for the first time in BRA planning documents in May 2006.
The provision shown here was added to the BRA 100 Acre plan in May 2006, five years into the planning of Fort Point 100 Acres.
No public discussion regarded such support for multi-story additions on historic structures. On the contrary, the BRA has emphasized in public planning presentations over the past decade that such additions would be discouraged.
2. BRA removes the naming convention "Historic" from BRA maps and text referring to Fort Point and its subdistricts. Click here for information regarding BRA name changes since June 2005.
3. BRA supports P&G Gillette "Phase One" supporting construction of private streets, absent concurrent development of adjacent public realm amenities. Phasing of roadways without concurrent public realm improvements (including a widely supported Fort Point Park) was quietly inserted in a May 2006 draft. At present, Fort Point has a single community park, 60 x 100 feet in size, that will be adjacent to A Street and a new Fort Point Boulevard, both planned as major truck routes. Community members requested that the BRA consider the early phasing of new open space amenities to be concurrent with early phasing of private streets.
4. The BRA has lowered its Fort Point residential projections South of Summer Street from "2,500 - 4,000" units (BRA Public Realm Plan, 1999) to 2,500 units (as indicated from in all subsequent BRA planning documents and presentations, 2001-2005), to 2,300 units (May 2006, Draft of Fort Point 100 Acres) to "2,000 to 2,300 units"(August 2006, Final Fort Point 100-Acres). Click here to read a related story about the area's housing shortfall.
As shown above, Fort Point residential planning projections have been lowered from a goal of 2,500 units (included in BRA plans from 1999-2005) to "2,000 to 2,300 units". This last-minute reduction by 20% in residential contruction goals was inserted into the Final Draft of the 100 Acres plan, having never been published or discussed for public comment before its publication.
To read a related article regarding residential development in 100 Acres, click here.
Your comments as a visitor to the SAND website would be appreciated and forwarded for discussion.
