October 2025
On behalf of the twelve thousand members of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB), the organization would like to express its support for the PLAN: Downtown Draft Downtown zoning amendments before this Commission. These amendments take vital steps to strengthen protections for Downtown’s historic and cultural assets, streamline pathways for adaptive reuse, modernize outdated land-use regulations, and enable the essential housing and mixed-use density that Downtown needs to grow. PLAN: Downtown advances historic preservation and ensures that new development is compatible with existing buildings in scale as well as the community’s needs in a changing Boston. PLAN: Downtown creates SKY-LOW and SKY overlay districts. The SKY-LOW-DT district includes a historic overlay tailored to the specific scale of downtown’s unique historic areas. It is distinguished by areas of architectural creativity and cohesive historic buildings in Downtown’s architectural lineage. The SKY District is distinguished by the city’s most significant job, housing, and entertainment density and it is uniquely positioned to accommodate future growth near major transportation assets. PLAN: Downtown establishes these districts to ensure that new development enhances the urban vitality of the city and the public realm while simultaneously strengthening Historic Preservation and Adaptive-Reuse.
These zoning changes are necessary to the future of Boston and will provide a blueprint for the development community in how it can achieve that vision. While zoning changes made by municipalities can be fraught with peril, and it is very difficult to find ways to address all stakeholders in full, PLAN: Downtown captures and preserves what many people find unique about Boston, while at the same time charting a vision for Boston’s future. The Greater Boston Real Estate Board supports the PLAN: Downtown Zoning Amendments before the Commission today and urges the Commission to support it as well.