6/7/2000
With one month left on the public comment period for the Pritzker Fan Pier Plan at the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the dialog regarding potential improvements to the plan continues.
At this Wednesday's BRA Municipal Harbor Plan meeting, the South Boston Neighborhood Design Advisory Committee (SBNDAC) will present a new approach to resolving Public Realm issues regarding the Fan Pier plan. Although SAND has not yet seen this new plan, it reportedly suggests a significantly larger community park at the foot of the Fan Pier cove, along with other public realm improvements.
To learn more about this presentation by the SBNDAC, or about the Pritzker plan currently under consideration for approval at the EOEA, visit the SAND calendar.
(c) 2000 The Boston HeraldActivists eye more space at Fan Pier
by Eric Convey
Wednesday, June 7, 2000
South Boston activists plan today to call for the removal of a major building from the Fan Pier development proposal put forth by Chicago's Pritzker family.
The South Boston Design Advisory Committee will ask that the city's Municipal Harbor Plan require open space in an area referred to as ``Parcel H'' in the Pritzkers' plans. An office building is planned for the site, which fronts the Fan Pier cove.
The Pritzker family has dramatically reduced the size of the building at Mayor Thomas M. Menino's request, to make an adjacent park larger.
Getting rid of the building ``would create much more open space . . . it would connect the neighborhood to the development,'' said a private-sector development expert who's familiar with the South Boston group's concerns.
Linda Haar, named yesterday as the Boston Redevelopment Authority's new director of planning and development, said the agency is uncomfortable with the proposal to leave Parcel H vacant.
The problem, Haar said, is that the neighborhood group suggested moving the office space from Parcel H into other Fan Pier structures - a switch that conceivably would protect the Pritzkers' revenue stream.
``Moving that density around on the site really didn't work from an urban-design prospective,'' Haar said. ``I appreciated their proposal, but it's not one that we thought would really work.''
The Pritzkers' local representatives could not be reached for comment late yesterday.
Vivian Li, the head of the Boston Harbor Association, said last night that the neighborhood plan is ``a step in the right direction.''
The city's Municipal Harbor Plan Advisory Committee, which will make the neighborhood group's request today, helps guide city planning.
The Menino administration is set to unveil its guidelines for waterfront development later this month.
The South Boston Neighborhood Development Corp. includes such influential residents as state Sen. Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston) and City Council President James Kelly, also a South Boston Democrat.
Lynch could not be reached yesterday.
Kelly said he has not yet decided whether to endorse the Pritzker proposal, but praised the family for the way it has worked with city officials.
Separately, Haar was promoted to the BRA post. A 25-year agency veteran, she will be chief of staff to agency Director Mark Maloney and will serve as director of planning and development.
Maloney also hired Kathy Kottaridis to be director of economic development.
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