Boston to Overhaul Development Review Process

Boston is one step closer to making a major overhaul of its long-maligned development review process after Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 unveiled a draft modernization plan last week.

The reforms, set to go into effect in early 2025, are meant to give residents more of a say in major proposed developments in their neighborhood, while simultaneously streamlining the process for developers.

Boston’s development review process has long faced criticism — from developers, who call it outdated and convoluted, and from neighborhood organizations, who feel that they hold little real power over development occurring on their blocks. Locals and advocates feel shut out from an ostensibly public process, while developers say they are forced to waste precious time and money to win approval.

“Development review in Boston is broken,” the plan reads. “Today’s process is lengthy, opaque, and unpredictable, which, when coupled with an outdated zoning code, makes it harder to grow our city.”

The city ultimately hopes the reform will speed up residential development and mitigate a dire housing shortage in the metro area, which has driven rents to some of the highest in the country. The reforms are likely to be felt strongly in Allston, where Harvard and other companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars toward new development.

Still, the new system is unlikely to change what has become one of the most contentious points of the development process: the allocation of, in some cases, millions of dollars in community benefits and mitigation measures to offset the costs of the neighborhood’s largest institutional developments.

The community benefits process has been called opaque and inconsistent by many Allston residents and advocates — findings that were echoed in the Boston plan.

Under the new system, the process for determining community benefits and mitigation will be standardized for most small and medium-sized developments. Still, Boston will continue to negotiate benefits for larger projects or institutional developments on a case-by-case basis — including Harvard.

Nearly every other part of the development process will also be overhauled under the plan. Public engagement around proposed projects will begin much earlier in the process, and feature more accessible ways for residents to weigh in, including via QR codes at the project site and text-based polling.

The reforms will also standardize the timeline for development approval, giving developers more certainty about when they can expect permission to move forward with their project.

Anthony P. “Tony” D’Isidoro, president of the Allston Civic Association and a member of the Article 80 steering committee, said the effort would address decades-long mistrust of the Boston Planning and Development Agency.

While he addressed previous Boston mayors’ attempts to rebrand the BPDA as “window-dressing,” he said this plan was the real deal.

“This process is about restoring credibility to the agency, and restoring confidence in the public that their voices are being heard,” he said.

Barbara Parmenter, a member of the Harvard Allston Task Force and the Coalition for a Just Allston and Brighton, said she was “impressed” with the recommendations and the city’s outreach. CJAB had previously issued an extensive list of criticisms of the process.

“They’ve really listened,” she said.

—Staff writer Jina H. Choe can be reached at jina.choe@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Jack R. Trapanick can be reached at jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @jackrtrapanick.