The city's proposal involves reducing the size of Building H, one of Fan Pier's main waterfront buildings, making it residential and adding civic space in two of the buildings. The proposal falls short of state Secretary of Environmental Affairs Robert Durand's demand to eliminate Building H altogether.
"We wanted a greater view corridor of the water," says Doug Pizzi, press secretary for the Office of Environmental Affairs. "We thought getting rid of building H was the easiest way to do that. What they came back with was not another way to do that." Pizzi tells GlobeSt.com that his office has not signed off on the compromise plan yet. "We want more details on what this entails in terms of density of the project," he notes. "We're still going through negotiations."
The Fan Pier Project, the city's largest waterfront development plan in Boston's history, was originally to be developed on 3.3 million sf of land. Under Secretary Durand's revision the plan was cut down to approximately 2.7 million sf of land. The compromise plan cuts the project down to a little over 3 million sf of land.
The project has faced more than two years of review by various agencies and although Pritzker's spokeswoman did not return calls before presstime, Pritzker is reported to have demanded that Durand finish his review by mid-November. Durand is expected to make a decision in the next several weeks, not only on Fan Pier but also on a sweeping city plan for redeveloping South Boston's waterfront.
Pritzker's troubles still might not be over then. The Conservation Law Foundation is reported to have threatened to sue stating that even after the compromise proposal on Fan Pier, the project is too big and that its buildings would wall off the waterfront.
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