Opinion

Will you challenge the BRA extension?

by Shirley Kressel
contributing writer
Thursday May 5, 2016

The Boston Redevelopment Authority is asking the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to approve a six-year extension of 14 expiring Urban Renewal (UR) Plans, which cover 3,000 acres of central Boston and affect hundreds of thousands of residents and property owners in South End, Roxbury, Chinatown, Fenway, Charlestown, Bay Village, and North End/Waterfront.

Per state regulations (760 CMR 12.00: URBAN RENEWAL REGULATIONS Section 12.03: Plan Changes), DHCD is allowed to approve UR Plan extensions only if they have been properly approved by the Boston City Council.

But as DHCD is aware, the Boston City Council no longer has jurisdiction over UR Plan extensions and therefore the DHCD approval of this extension is not in conformance with the statutory regulations.

On December 15, 2004, the City Council approved a 10-year extension of the UR Plans and "a series of procedural changes with respect to Urban Renewal Plans in Boston." The "procedural changes" consisted of changes in the Council's UR Plan approval powers, leaving the Council with voting power only on proposed creation of new UR Plans and proposed termination of ongoing UR Plans, but not on extension of expiring UR Plans.

The BRA submitted to DHCD the Council-approved UR Plan extensions and changes to the Council's review powers, and DHCD approved in 2005. These changes are still in effect.

The Council's loss of power over extensions has been acknowledged by BRA attorneys, both at the time it was enacted and today. Yet the BRA has advised the Councilors that their vote complies with the law, deliberately misleading them in order to get a vote to take to DHCD for ratification.

But the Boston City Council exceeded its authority in casting this vote, which is therefore not lawful. The same would be true for a DHCD vote based on such a Council vote. Since the Council could not lawfully vote on this extension, DHCD cannot lawfully consider the proposed change. Therefore, the UR Plans must by law expire as mandated, on April 30, 2016.

DHCD's only lawful course of action is to notify the BRA that DHCD cannot entertain the extension request and that these 14 UR Plans will expire by law on April 30, 2016. However, DHCD, either unaware of or ignoring these facts, seems prepared to approve.

This unlawful decision can be challenged in court. If you are a resident or property owner in an Urban Renewal Plan neighborhood, and want to talk about about how to protect yourself from the impacts of this extension of Urban Renewal powers, please contact me at urplanaction@gmail.com.

For further information:
https://www.universalhub.com/2016/ur-plan-extension-how-city-council-lost-its-power
http://www.universalhub.com/files/URP%20WestEndMuseum.pdf

Shirley Kressel is a landscape architect and urban designer, and one of the founders of the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods. She can be reached at Shirley.Kressel@verizon.net.