Yoon: BRA is Stifling Debate, Fumbling Process on BC Expansion
Calls for Review of BRA’s Community Processes
March 11, 2009
BOSTON – City Councilor-at-Large Sam Yoon blasted the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) today for failing to manage an adequate public review of the Boston College’s Institutional Master Plan (IMP). Yoon submitted a hearing order outlining the BRA’s repeated failures to meet statutory guidelines and ordered a public review of the city’s community process in developing the expansion plans.
“Boston residents need to have a say in what happens in their neighborhoods,” said Yoon. “When an institution like BC wants to expand, the city has an obligation to provide a real public process for residents of the surrounding neighborhood. It’s clear that the BRA has ignored its own rules and made a mockery of the public process meant to engage the Brighton community in reviewing BC’s plan for expansion.”
At a BRA meeting on January 29th hundreds of Brighton residents testified for or against the plan. But community members grew weary when, after over four hours of detailed and specific objections from hundreds of members of the Brighton community, the BRA board did not engage in a single word of debate and unanimously approved the plan.
Other issues to be reviewed by City Council:
- The BRA allowed BC to ignore significant parts of the Scoping Determination required by the BRA
- BC did not post updates to their IMP website until a few hours before the BRA vote was scheduled to take place
- Prior to scheduling the March 18th Zoning Commission hearing, the BRA met the bare minimum for public notice and did not have the BC IMP available for review as required by BRA statute.
Last month, Yoon sent a letter to John Palmieri, director of the BRA, urging the board not to proceed with the rezoning process until BC fulfills the requirements of the public process.
Yoon was first elected to an at-large seat on the City Council in 2005. He has been at the forefront of numerous issues, including affordable housing, youth violence, senior safety, and making city government more open and accountable. Prior to serving on the City Council, he worked for over ten years in community-based non-profits as a community organizer and development project specialist. He lives in the Fields Corner neighborhood of Dorchester with his wife, Tina, son, Nathan, and daughter, Naomi.
