Tower proposal gets major boost
Gov OKs ‘shadow law’ changes
Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday signed off on changes to state laws that limit shadows cast by developments on the Boston Common and Public Garden, eliminating a roadblock to Millennium Partners’ proposed $1 billion, 775foot tower on the Winthrop Square garage site in downtown Boston.
Millennium, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Boston Planning & Development Agency pushed for changes to the laws, which were enacted in 1990 and 1992. The laws dictated that new buildings in the Winthrop Square area could cast shadows on the two public parks only in the first hour after sunrise or before 7 a.m. — whichever was later — or the last hour before sunset.
The revised legislation also eliminates a “shadow bank” that developers could tap for new Midtown Cultural District buildings that would have cast shadows on the parks after 10 a.m., limiting the heights of future buildings there.
The city is set to get $153 million from its sale of the one-acre garage site to Millennium. Walsh has pledged the money to improvements for parks and open space, including the Common, and affordable housing.
“This commonsense change will better protect the Boston Common and ... Public Garden for years to come, while allowing a project that will generate hundreds of millions of dollars for Boston’s neighborhoods, parks and public housing to move forward,” BPDA director Brian Golden said. The project is going through the BPDA’s development review process.
Millennium principal Joe Larkin said the company is “appreciative that the Legislature passed and Gov. Baker signed the bill that allows the project to move forward to the next phase of approvals.”
But Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, who had urged Baker to veto the bill, called the legislation a “bad decision.” Galvin, also chairman of the Massachusetts Historical Commission, said the panel believes construction of the tower would greatly damage historical buildings on the national and state registers of historic places, and public parks.
“Obviously, the negative impacts have yet to be determined on some historic buildings such as the State House and even private residences on Beacon Hill and elsewhere,” Galvin said. “The proponents, by their own admission, acknowledged that their studies are incomplete. It’s like applying for a position without filling in the employment application.”