Master Plan passes BRA with proviso

After years of planning, community meetings, and occasionally bitter debate, Boston College's Master Plan was approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) on Thursday with one proviso. The 10-year institutional plan, which includes the construction of a university center, a new recreation center, a fine arts district, and new intramural athletics fields, must now be reviewed by the Boston Zoning Commission before being presented to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino for his approval.

"The vote to approve the plan with the proviso was unanimous," said Jessica Shumaker, BRA spokesperson. The proviso to the plan involved the University's plan to place 150 beds on the Brighton property purchased from the Boston Archdiocese. These dormitories were among the plan's most contended issues.

Allston-Brighton residents expressed worries that the students housed on the campus would prove to be disruptive to their neighborhood. This issue was also one on which the Brighton Task Force, an advisory group to the BRA, changed a long-held position in their final letter to the board.

In their final letter, dated Jan. 28, the Task Force recommended that the board allow BC to build dormitories for 150 beds on the property. The letter said, "The Task Force recognizes that this reverses our long-standing position on housing students on the so-called Brighton campus; we also recognize widespread community opposition to this proposal. In making this most difficult concession, the Task Force believes that the College should act decisively to forge common ground with the community by accepting an affirmative obligation to house 350 more students on its traditional campus."

The Task Force had asked for BC to house more students on the main body of the campus since their Sep. 5, 2008, letter to the board, which said, "The majority of the Task Force believes that no undergraduate dormitories should be built on the former seminary grounds given widespread community opposition to sitting residence halls on this part of the campus and because of the College's ability to house an additional 500 students on its traditional campus." The task force said in both letters that the presence of an estimated 1,200 BC students living in the neighborhoods surrounding campus has had a negative effect on the community for permanent residents.

"We strongly believe that the presence of students in our community is causing significant harm to the long-term sustainability of the neighborhood," the more recent letter said. The Task Force urged the University to consider placing more students in housing on the main body of the campus. "Our community is sacrificing much to achieve the vital goal of 100 percent housing, and we ask Boston College to recognize these sacrifices and to demonstrate its good faith and commitment to our community by housing the remaining students on its main campus," the letter said.

However, the BRA voted "that the plan for 150 dorm beds on the Brighton Campus will be taken under further advisement," said a press statement released Thursday evening. "The board voted to take the 150 beds under further advisement, the reason we did that was because we didn't feel that that issue had been adequately addressed at this time," Shumaker said.

Administrators at BC have said throughout the revisal process that it is not practical for the University to place more student dormitories on the main campus, a solution they have said would lead to overcrowding by putting 350 to 500 more students on Lower Campus.

"Today's action by the BRA gives Boston College approval of its Master Plan. With the one proviso, however, BC must still seek approval from the BRA before they can move forward with the individual projects envisioned in the master plan document. Additionally, BC must also seek approval from the Zoning Commission," the BRA press release said.

Shumaker said that the individual elements must now undergo a large project review. "Even though they have approval for the master plan except for the 150 beds, any of those projects discussed in the Master Plan have to undergo what's called large project review with the BRA, which means that they need to submit a proposal for that individual project," Shumaker said, "and we and the community will review the impact and design of each project, and it needs board approval before they can start building it."

"The Task Force is an advisory body to us, and we're very thankful for the hours they've spent meeting and going over this plan. They're advisory, so I don't think it's fair to rank how much we take into consideration their comments versus somebody else's," Shumaker said.

In an editorial on Thursday in The Boston Globe, Ram Rao and Abigail Furey, co-chairs of Brighton Neighbors United, said that the University has consistently ignored the interests of community residents. They specifically cited a 2004 article in the Globe which said that the college would not extend "core campus functions" to the Brighton campus. "While the institutions are many and large in Boston, the community in which they exist is even greater. With the present course, the city risks losing its neighborhoods in favor of institutional zones."

The BRA press release said that, over the course of the public process, there were a number of changes made to the original Master Plan document, which was filed on Dec. 5. Among these were that the University would expand the proposed housing goal from 92 percent of undergraduates to 100 percent of students who desire housing. This number exempts students studying abroad or who otherwise do not seek on-campus University housing.

BC's plan had also originally intended to place beds for 500 students on the Brighton campus, which fell to 150 before Thursday's decision, with an agreement that the other 350 beds would be put under further study. "The board vote to take the 150 beds under further advisement, the reason we did that was because we didn't feel that that issue had been adequately addressed at this time," Shumaker said.