TALL ORDER IS SOUGHT FOR TOWER PROPOSAL
Hub developer wants exception to shadow law
The Boston Planning & Development Agency officially begins its push today for special legislation to exempt Millennium Partners’ proposed $1 billion, 775-foot Winthrop Square tower from state laws that limit shadows cast by developments onto the Boston Common and Public Garden.
City Councilor Bill Linehan is expected to file a BPDA-authored home rule petition with the City Council that, if enacted, would allow the project to proceed on the city-owned garage site.
The proposed legislation also would eliminate a “shadow bank” that developers can tap for new Midtown Cultural District buildings that would cast shadows on the parks after 10 a.m., limiting the height of future buildings there. The BPDA looked at those possible future developments and found their average annual shadows would exceed that of the Millennium tower in size and duration, according to BPDA director Brian Golden.
“You get a better outcome by accepting the Winthrop Square shadow and eliminating the possibility of the shadow bank allowing new height in the Midtown Cultural District,” Golden said.
The city will reap $153 million from its sale of the one-acre Winthrop Square site to Millennium. It has pledged $28 million each for Boston Common and Franklin Park improvements, $11 million to the Emerald Necklace, $25 million toward redevelopment of the Boston Housing Authority’s Old Colony public housing in South Boston and $10 million for improvements at the BHA’s Orient Heights public housing in East Boston. The project also would generate $12 million to $15 million in annual property taxes.
“This is maybe a oncein-a-century opportunity to get that investment,” Golden said. “We can’t see another parcel that is publicly owned that will yield that kind of dividend for all the people in this city. We want to make sure that we seize those benefits while they’re being offered.”
The home rule petition, supported by Mayor Martin J. Walsh, needs City Council approval before it is sent to the state Legislature and also must be endorsed by Gov. Charlie Baker.
“We’ve spent months analyzing this and months making the argument to stakeholders, and I think we’ve got the quantum of
support we will need to get it through the City Council and the Legislature,” Golden said.
Millennium principal Joe Larkin said he’s encouraged by the filing.
“We’re hopeful that the City Council will understand the incredible upside of this development and continue to move it forward through the approvals process,” he said.
The bill also proposes turning zoning regulations limiting new shadows on Copley Square Park into state law, so developers can’t seek variances to get around them for Stuart Street district buildings. And it would require the BPDA to do a downtown planning study that encompasses the Midtown Cultural and Financial districts, with recommendations on development impacts, including with regard to sunlight and shadows.
The city chose Millennium’s tower project from six proposals. Millennium plans up to 460 residential units, office space, a business accelerator, retail, restaurants and up to 550 garage parking spaces. A three-story “great hall” public gathering space would connect Federal and Devonshire streets, and its 20-foot glass panels would open to the sidewalks in warm months.
State laws enacted in 1990 and 1992 dictate new buildings in the Winthrop Square area only can cast shadows over Boston Common and the Public Garden during the first hour after sunrise or before 7 a.m. — whichever is later — or the last hour before sunset.
According to a Millennium-commissioned study, its tower would cast shadows on Boston Common in excess of what’s allowable for 282 days per year. The average daily prohibited shadow would be 37 minutes, with no shadows after 9:30 a.m. The longest duration of prohibited shadow would be 96 minutes.
The tower would cast prohibited shadows on the Public Garden for 112 days, with no shadow after 8 a.m. Those shadows would last a maximum of 23 minutes, with an average daily duration of five minutes.
Future Midtown Cultural District buildings could yield average daily shadows of four to six hours, according to Golden.
Elizabeth Vizza, executive director of the Friends of the Public Garden, said she looks forward to reviewing the proposed legislation.
“We are continuing to work with Mayor Walsh and the BPDA to ensure that a final resolution provides broad, permanent protections for the city’s landmark parks and minimizes the impact of shadows from the proposed Winthrop Square project,” she said.