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Parking Freeze Could Impede Waterfront Development: NAIOP

BOSTON-A plan to freeze the number of off-street parking spaces in South Boston has waterfront developers warning of dire consequences to future projects there. The freeze was approved a number of years ago in connection with the Big Dig, but was never implemented.

By Naomi Grossman | Updated on April 02, 2002

BOSTON-A plan to freeze the number of off-street parking spaces in South Boston has local developers up in arms. They warn that if the plan is implemented it could severely impact future projects on the waterfront.

The freeze was approved a number of years ago in connection with the Big Dig, the massive highway construction project in this city, but was never implemented. “We weren’t prepared for the freeze to be implemented,” David Begelfer, CEO of this state’s chapter of the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties, tells GlobeSt.com. Begelfer says that a push by local environmental groups got the state to take notice of the policy. Now, he says, the state is planning to send the policy to its Department of Environmental Protection. “The biggest problem is the number of spaces in inventory,” he points out. “If they start limiting spaces, that could severely impact development.”

A parking freeze is generally used to encourage people to use mass transit. It was implemented in Boston and in Cambridge bur Begelfer insists that it could have dire consequences here because the mass transit currently planned for the waterfront—a new silver line on the MBTA—is not enough to handle the number of people who will come down to this area once its fully developed. “The mass transit here was never built to accommodate the full build out in the Seaport area,” says Begelfer. “As the area gets built it won’t have appropriate parking.” Begelfer points out that it’s not the projects currently being built that will be affected as much as those coming down the line.

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