News release from the Boston Redevelopment Authority:
Request for Proposals to be issued for Downtown Waterfront Municipal Harbor Plan
The BRA Board unanimously approved the advertising of a Request for Proposals for a planning and design consultant for the Downtown Municipal Harbor Plan to codify the Use and Development Guidelines for the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway District. The Greenway District includes Chinatown and the Leather District, Dewey Square, the Financial District, the Wharf District, Town Cove, Market District and Government Center, and the North End.
The Greenway District Use and Development Guidelines encourage residential, hotel, and mixed-use development with active ground-floor and streetscape designs and ground floor retail programming, all with the goal of animating park edges to contribute new populations to the Greenway and Downtown. The guidelines were created by studying the macro and micro context of each parcel to determine how to maximize its benefit to the Greenway Corridor.
Since the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway opened in the fall of 2008, the parks have blossomed into one of the most important open spaces in Boston and created connections among the park, its programs, and the downtown, the harbor, and the South Boston Waterfront. Those bonds will continue to grow. Properties along the Park are continuing to be redeveloped and are currently subject to a variety of zoning articles, none of which have been guided by a vision of the Greenway as a distinctive environment within Boston. With the drafting of the Downtown Municipal Harbor Plan, these guidelines can be shaped into the appropriate zoning mechanism to ensure the Greenway continues as a premiere open space in Boston.
