NEWRA Objects to Harbor Plan Amendment

The North End/Waterfront Residents’ Association (NEWRA) has sent a comment letter to Daniel J. Padien, Chief of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) requesting that DEP remove the City of Boston Downtown District Municipal Harbor Plan as an “Approved Municipal Harbor Plan” from the proposed amendment to the Massachusetts Waterways regulation, 310 CMR 9.00.

NEWRA claims the amended proposal by DEP would modify provisions at the regulations related to Municipal Harbor Planning (MHP), effectively providing, without further DEP or public review, approval of the Downtown Waterfront MHP and other MHP’s.

It is NEWRA’s position that reinstating the Downtown Waterfront MHP that was invalidated by a recent Suffolk Superior Court ruling would revalidate and add to a series of significant errors and omissions in the Secretary’s original approval and in the conduct of the Boston Planning and Development Agency’s (BPDA) planning process.

While DEP has issued a letter concurring with the Downtown Waterfront MHP, NEWRA respectfully contends that this MHP and the associated BPDA planning process were deficient in facilitating community-based waterfront planning, preserving and protecting the public rights in tide lands, mitigating or offsetting the impact of substitute standards and improving the public realm with consistent and uniform design standards across the planning area.

NEWRA outline specific reasons for seeking removal of the Downtown Waterfront MHP from the proposed amendment to the regulations.

They mirror the concerns raised in their more detailed comments on the Environmental Notification form for the Harbor Garage redevelopment project dated October 2, 2020.

Many of those comments related to the deficiencies with the Downtown Waterfront MHP and their concerns about the potential adverse impacts of the Harbor Garage project.

The letter also pointed out many other issues and concerns…

NEWRA concluded that the planning process was conducted by BPDA with the soul end game of ensuring the construction of building towers that were proposed at or near the water’s edge after the Harbor Garage and Hook Wharf sites, with all other planning objections being secondary or neglected.

A 600-foot building constructed close to the water’s edge and within a narrow but important and highly active public waterfront area is inappropriate.

The MHP’s offsets for substitute provisions for building height are inadequate and unacceptable. MHP process inadequacies must be corrected.

NEWRA requested that the MEPA process on the Harbor Garage ENE, be suspended until design and use standards were developed and approved, if not possible, that the Secretary’s decision on the ENF and the scope for the DEIR include the background and purpose of design and use standards are expressed.

NEWRA noted, the period of time during which an MHP may be submitted for approval in 301 CMR 23.04 had expired long before the Downtown Waterfront MHP was submitted.

The Downtown MHP Advisory Committee, as the Harbor Planning Group, should have participated under 301 CMP 23.04 (3) (c) in the nine months of post comment-period private consultations which BPDA had with state agencies.

The consultation sessions should have been open under Massachusetts Open Law, not only to the Advisory Committee members but the public as well.