Editorial: A planning partnership

The Boston Redevelopment Authority is to be commended for creating a “corridor plan” for rapidly changing S. Huntington Avenue. It’s late, but not too late, and it shows a responsiveness to community concerns that the BRA has long sorely lacked. The BRA could have thrown up its hands and said it has no formal process for creating this type of master plan. BRA Director Peter Meade showed great community-minded leadership is ordering it to happen and working out the details later.

The community, including the Gazette, wanted a master plan. The BRA is delivering. That great street will be better for it, not only today, but also in the neighborhood of a hundred years from now.

In the longer term, the BRA should consider similar ad hoc plans for other hot spots around the city. And it may well be time to start creating a new zoning map for the entire neighborhood. Mission Hill was last rezoned in 1996 after a seven-year community process. The Longwood Medical Area zoning appears to have gone unchanged for far longer and is creating all sorts of confusion, muddled further by the dubious LMA “Interim Guidelines” that act as a second set of rules.

Whatever happens, we look forward to the BRA being a planning partner with the community for years to come.

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