Mayor Wu has put forward her first appointees to the board of the Boston Planning and Development Agency. In filings with the City Council, Wu submitted the names of three people, including one who is a reappointment:
• Priscilla Rojas, the current BPDA board chair who was first appointed by Mayor Marty Walsh in 2015 and in 2020 became the first woman and Latina to helm the board. She lived in the city’s Leather District when first appointed, and now resides on the Dorchester/Mattapan line.
• Raheem Shepard, a Hyde Park resident who grew up in Dorchester’s St. Mark’s area, would fill the board’s organized labor slot if the slate is approved by the 13-member City Council. He would replace Michael Monahan, a top leader with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) who was first appointed by Mayor Thomas Menino in 2013 and reappointed by Mayor Walsh. Monahan’s term expires this month.
Shepard is also a member of the city’s Zoning Board of Appeal (ZBA). Wu appointed him to the body last year as part of a broader overhaul of that board.
• Kate Bennett of Roslindale, Wu’s third nominee, just stepped down from her job as Boston Housing Authority administrator, with former District 8 (Back Bay and Mission Hill) Councillor Kenzie Bok tapped to take that role.
Bennett would fill a vacant seat previously held by Carol Downs, a Walsh appointee who was the co-owner of a Jamaica Plain restaurant.
If approved, the nominees would constitute a majority of Wu appointees on the five-member board. The other two are Ted Landsmark, former president of the Boston Architectural College, who lives in Jamaica Plain and whose term expires next summer, and Brian Miller, a South Boston financial adviser, who was appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2020 and has his term expiring in 2025.
While running for mayor, Wu pledged to abolish the BPDA, and she has steadily moved ahead with an effort to dismantle the agency through the creation of a city planning and design department and a planning advisory council, and a home rule petition reworking the structure of the BPDA, while a new entity would retain the BPDA name.
“I join the board members in thanking Mike Monahan for his years of service to the City of Boston and working people,” Wu said in a statement. “Raheem Shepherd and Kate Bennett are tremendous additions to the board who will bring experience and focus to make Boston the best city for families— affordable and green, with opportunities connecting every generation.”
Arthur Jemison, Wu’s chief of planning and director of the BPDA, noted that Monahan had served on the ZBA for 12 years before spending a decade on the BPDA board. “He has been an important voice for the growth of the city,” Jemison said. “I look forward to working with Kate and Raheem, who are experts in their own right on building Boston in a thoughtful way. I am confident they will help guide growth that will make our city more resilient, affordable, and equitable.”
