Chap. 652. AN ACT CONCERNING THE DEVELOPMENT OR REDEVELOPMENT OF BLIGHTED OPEN AREAS, DECADENT AREAS AND SUBSTANDARD AREAS BY URBAN REDEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS WITH SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR PROJECTS IN THE CITY OF BOSTON.
SECTION 12.
...The [Boston Redevelopment] Authority shall further have the powers and perform the duties from time to time conferred or imposed on planning boards of cities in Massachusetts by general laws applicable to Boston, including section seventy of chapter forty-one of the General Laws, and shall also have the powers and perform the duties conferred or imposed by statute or ordinance on the city planning board of the city of Boston immediately prior to the taking effect of this act; and for all purposes, including those of sections twenty-six KK and twenty-six ZZ of chapter one hundred and twenty-one of the General Laws, the authority shall be deemed to be a planning board established under said section seventy. Said city may annually or oftener appropriate money to defray expenses incurred by the authority in exercising powers and performing duties under this paragraph.
The city planning board of said city is hereby abolished, and all property of said city in the custody of said board and all appropriations of said city for the use of said board are hereby transferred to and vested in the authority...
SECTION 13.
...When any vote of the authority under this or the preceding section becomes final, the secretary of the authority shall file with the city clerk of the city of Boston a copy of such vote attested by such secretary with, in cases where approval of such vote by the mayor is required, a copy of such approval likewise attested. Within thirty days after such filing, any person, whether previously a party to the proceedings or not, who is aggrieved by such vote, or any municipal officer or board, may file a petition in the supreme judicial or superior court sitting in Suffolk County for a writ of certiorari against the authority, to correct errors of law therein and the provisions of section one D of chapter two hundred and thirteen, and of section four of chapter two hundred and forty-nine, of the General Laws, shall apply to said petition except as herein provided with respect to the time for the filing thereof. The remedy provided by this paragraph shall be exclusive.
Wednesday, September 7, 1960
Sections 12 and 13, excerpted below, let the BRA replace Boston’s planning board -- the only urban renewal agency in the United States to take over a city’s planning functions.
Note that this was not the purpose of this legislation, which was written to allow the Prudential Insurance Company to enjoy the benefits of certain tax breaks previously allowed only to subsidize affordable housing in distressed neighborhoods. How did it get in there, anyway....?
