Mayor Michelle Wu’s main priorities of lease management and BPDA reform are on observe to move as much as Beacon Hill after the Boston City Council handed them in the present day.
The council authorized each lease management and reform of the Boston Planning & Development Agency by 11-2 counts.
The physique authorized each in what’s primarily the variations submitted by Wu, so she’s anticipated to signal them. Once that ink’s dry, each payments then head to the state home, the place they want the approval of each chambers of the Legislature after which the governor’s signature.
“This is a monumental act by the city of Boston,” Government Operations Chair Ricardo Arroyo stated as he really useful passage of the rent-control invoice.
These are two of Wu’s high priorities — matters she ran on in her 2021 mayoral marketing campaign and in addition touted in her State of the City speech in January as she laid out her priorities for the 12 months.
The rent-control invoice would cap year-over-year lease will increase at 6% plus shopper worth index will increase, to a max of 10%. The rule would carve out exemptions for brand spanking new development and small landlords, in addition to strengthening protections in opposition to evictions.
When Wu initially proposed it, she took flak from each the left and the suitable. Multiple progressive metropolis councilors criticized her proposal as too unfastened, however all of them finally voted in favor of what City Councilor Kendra Lara characterised as a compromise.
Industry teams have hammered this proposal from the opposite aspect, together with launching a $400,000 marketing campaign in opposition to it, saying it’s a failed coverage that may lower down on new housing.
Wu’s known as to “abolish the BPDA” for years and although the invoice makes use of that language, her officers appear to have backed away from it. The BPDA high-ups who attended a listening to on the matter final week pitched it to the council as extra of a “consolidation” — a bookkeeping maneuver that might mix the 2 wings of the group below one banner whereas eliminating some outdated urban-renewal guidelines.
City Councilors Frank Baker and Erin Murphy had been the lone votes in opposition to each issues.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”