Cataloguing land documents has taken precedent in time and manpower during the city’s urban renewal extension reassessment, Boston Planning and Development Agency officials told the city council at the first of its semiannual reviews of urban renewal powers last Friday.

Urban renewal came to Boston in the 1950s and 1960s, overseen by what was the then the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The redevelopment agency is authorized to use tools like eminent domain, zoning controls, housing affordability restrictions, and distribution of federal and state funding to spark or shape growth in designated zones.

An extension of the urban renewal powers was authorized in 2005 for 10 years and again this fall for six years, expiring in April 2022.

When the Boston City Council in March voted 10-3 in favor of the extension of the controversial programming — which for many raises the spectre of a swath cleared across the West End in the 1950s — it was with the corollary that the process be reviewed twice a year to ensure no rampant disregard for local interests by an agency with vast discretionary power.

“I want to emphasize that urban renewal continues to be a priority of the Boston Planning and Development Agency,” Golden said at the council hearing. “Urban renewal remains a living, breathing, and evolving function, deserving of the BPDA’s full attention.”

Urban renewal has a designated full-time staff and project manager and an urban renewal land disposition team, Golden said.

The discovery and research of land disposition agreements (LDAs) — agreements governing the transference of BPDA-owned land — has consumed the majority of the team’s time, Golden said.
Renee LeFeure, BPDA general counsel, said the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development handed down specific guidelines to the BPDA when it officially approved the six-year extension in August. The state aligned closely with the action plan put forth by the city council in April.

Among these requirements are, over the next two years, cataloguing all LDAs within the 14 urban renewal zones that are being extended. The majority of the zones are located in the northern half of Boston, with the southernmost zone the Brunswick-King zone in Dorchester that focuses mostly on open space, parks, and schools.

The 14 areas comprise Brunswick-King, Campus High School, Boylston-Essex, School-Franklin, South Station, Charlestown, Fenway, Government Center, Kittredge Square, Park Plaza, South Cove, South End, Washington Park, and Downtown Waterfront.

DHCD also requires the BPDA to give notice of any major or minor modifications within an Urban Renewal Area. The planning agency must also notify the DHCD if it plans to sell BRA property that will displace persons living there.

CIty Councillor Tito Jackson, who was one of the three dissenting votes in March, took umbrage at the suggestion that the multi-year extension was a minor modification in the first place. That classification, Jackson said, eliminates the city council’s ability to vote on changes to the urban renewal projects.

The city council’s action plan for the BPDA requires that the agency evaluate and adjust its land disposition protocols in a way that incorporates community planning priorities.

Inventorying all land disclosures “is slow and cumbersome,” Golden said at the hearing. “Currently, we have discovered over 1,200 files related to the LDA inventory.” This documentation includes LDAs, but also regulatory agreements and details on urban renewal areas.

Golden anticipates the inventory process will lead to reevaluation of boundaries and adjustments to the urban renewal areas, particularly in the South End, which accounts for over 800 pertinent documents.

The urban renewal portion of the BPDA website acts as a central location for urban renewal updates and information.

Last week, a coalition of housing advocates including former Boston mayoral candidate Mel King, called on the Walsh administration to make systemic changes to the way the former BRA operates, including the institution of elected resident boards in each urban renewal zones.

In an interview with the Reporter, King said that he has personally asked Mayor Walsh to make elected boards— which would have the power to check off on BPDA decisions within the zones— a priority. King, a longtime critic of the BPDA structure said that all Boston neighborhoods, even those without designated urban renewal zones, should have elected neighborhood advisory boards.

“The idea is to get people to understand in whose interest things are happening with the idea that the current population has to be heard. Why shouldn’t they be involved in designing development that’s in their interest,” said King, who argues that the original federal law authorizing Urban Renewal powers “mandated an elected committee from the neighborhood.”

“People have to feel that they will be heard because their neighbors put them in power,” said King.

Bill Forry contributed to this report.