BPDA Board Adopts Anti-Displacement Plan and Overhauls Article 80 Development Review

BOSTON — July 17, 2025 — Boston's BPDA board approves citywide anti-displacement plan and first Article 80 overhaul since 1996. The board, chaired by Priscilla Rojas, voted unanimously on all items at its July 17 meeting, adopting "A Place to Thrive" — a two-year action plan spanning more than 40 initiatives across 20 city departments to address residential, commercial, and cultural displacement — and authorizing a petition to the Zoning Commission to modernize Article 80 development review procedures for the first time since the code's adoption. Catherine Lusk, Executive Director of the Planning Advisory Council, said the anti-displacement plan engaged more than 23,000 Bostonians and drew over 400 comments on its draft; a public progress report is due summer 2026. Key Article 80 changes, presented by senior deputy director Nupur Monani and project manager Kevin Crossley, include raising the Boston Civic Design Commission mandatory review threshold from 100,000 to 200,000 square feet — a change staff said would exempt 75 percent of past housing projects from full BCDC review. The board also approved four development projects totaling 309 residential units, 67 of them income-restricted, with an anticipated construction cost of approximately $134 million.