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March 18, 2004

Councilors battle BRA over land

Jeremy Schwab

Few in city government are willing to criticize the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which has determined the course of the Hub’s development for the past 40 years.

But as the BRA seeks to renew its urban renewal contracts, all of which are due to expire in the coming years, members of the City Council have become increasingly vocal in calling for a serious debate on the power of the BRA.

When Councilor Maureen Feeney discovered in her mailbox during last Wednesday’s full council meeting a notice from the BRA that it would vote the following day on extending for two years the life of its Government Center and Waterfront Urban Renewal plans, she cried foul.

“They said they would submit a package to us on all this information before voting on any extension,” said Feeney. “If I hadn’t found that in my mailbox, they might have just gone ahead with it.”

Feeney alerted her colleagues to the pending vote and called for a postponement of the vote until a public hearing could be held on the two extensions. Facing criticism from councilors, BRA Director Mark Maloney agreed to postpone the BRA’s vote until April 1.

All of the BRA’s 24 urban renewal contracts expire over the next year-and-a-half, and the Government Center and Waterfront plans are the first the BRA has tried to extend. Observers believe the BRA will try to renew most of them.

Councilors are planning to protest if the BRA does not satisfy their concerns about the two contract extensions during the upcoming hearing.

“On April 1, when the BRA board meets again and on the agenda are the two minor modifications, members of the council might go to the board to protest the actions,” said Joe O’Keefe, chief of staff to President Michael Flaherty. “If the BRA doesn’t cooperate and satisfy the council’s questions not only about these but about future contracts, this is what they can expect.”

Protest would be the councilors’ only recourse because under state Urban Renewal Plan Modifications Regulations, the BRA does not have to bring two-year extensions and other “minor modifications” before the council for approval. But it does have to bring any modifications — minor or major — before the DHCD.

“The DHCD has an ongoing dispute with the BRA over the nature of the agency’s jurisdiction,” wrote DHCD spokeswoman Beth Bresnahan in an email to the Banner. “The irony of the situation is that while the BRA does not believe that DHCD has any jurisdiction over its non-state funded urban renewal projects except for approval of major plan changes, the BRA does occasionally request DHCD approval of minor plan changes.”

BRA representatives did not return calls for comment on this story.

BRA Director Mark Maloney has held a series of monthly meetings open only to city councilors to discuss BRA operations in response to councilors’ concerns about the urban renewal plans coming up for review.

Councilor Felix Arroyo fired off an angry letter last week to Maloney protesting the discussions.

“I was made aware for the first time that the BRA apparently continues to hold meetings with city councilors to discuss the extension of all of the BRA’s urban renewal plans as a “package,” that are not on the public record,” wrote Arroyo in his March 10 letter to Maloney. “It continues to be my position that these ‘discussions’ violate at least the spirit of the state’s Open Meeting Law.”

Arroyo said he will boycott future closed meetings with Maloney.

Despite the concerns of Arroyo and others, Flaherty said the meetings are simply to inform the councilors about the operations of the BRA, not to work out any sort of back room deal.

 

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