BPDA Votes to Advance Chinatown Affordable Housing Project, Approves Emergency Pier Repairs

Uncategorized · Meeting of July 19, 2026

Boston's BPDA board advances Chinatown affordable housing, approves $10 million pier repair, and bids farewell to Director Golden. At an April 2022 meeting covering more than 40 items, the board unanimously granted tentative designation to the Asian Community Development Corporation for Parcel R-1 in Chinatown, a 18,700-square-foot vacant site to be redeveloped as a 110-unit fully affordable mixed-use building with a 15,000-square-foot Boston Public Library branch on the ground floor, with condominium prices estimated at $200,000 to $350,000 and rentals serving households from 30 to 80 percent of area median income. The board also unanimously authorized advertising a roughly $10 million emergency bid to jacket deteriorating steel piles at Pier 4 in the Charlestown Navy Yard, displacing the Courageous Sailing Center to an adjacent pier in the interim.

A split vote of 3 to 2, with Ms. Downs and Dr. Landsmark opposed, approved a 38-unit condominium project at 14 Gardner Street in Allston after questions about tenant complaint letters and below-market construction costs of approximately $200,000 per unit.

Director Brian Golden, departing after eight-plus years as the agency's longest-serving director, cited more than 90 million square feet of development approvals and $43 billion in investment across his tenure, telling the board, "Our work is almost never easy, but it is always consequential and important."

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 6,065 words

Source: the Uncategorized meeting of July 19, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.