Published in the Back Bay Courant, May 12, 1998

Imagine for a moment that you are a commercial property developer hungrily eyeing sites in Boston. You are approached by a land owner who offers you the seemingly unthinkable: a building site with a great location and subject to the control of no one but the owner. No height restrictions, no use limitations, no governmental controls or bureaucratic obstacles. You can build anything you want as long as the owner says okay. And the owner makes it very clear: he wants to make a deal.

So what do you do? You go for it.

That's what happened 18 months ago when Millennium Partners first unveiled plans for a mega-development over the Massachusetts Turnpike. The property owner it was dealing with was the Masssachusetts Turnpike Authority, which seemingly had unilateral authority to do whatever it wanted with air rights over the Pike. Along with Millennium, the Turnpike Authority said, it would be soon undertaking a series of developments along the entire Boston corridor of the Turnpike.

It's now a year-and-a-half later. In that time, the state has given birth to a new convention center and Millennium Partners has planned, financed and is about to break ground on a large commercial development downtown. But the dreams of a Pike development have faded and the Pike itself is now the subject of a Boston-led planning study that will sharply constrain any new development plans.

What happened? The people won. In the last 18 months, control over the Pike has shifted markedly, from being under the sole control of the MTA over to Boston and its residents. It's a remarkable story of community activism at its best.

Immediately after the first stories appeared about developing the Pike air rights, community groups from the Fenway and Back Bay began to mobilize. After a series of discussions they created a working group, the Committee for Reasonable Turnpike Development. Working with state and local officials from along the Pike, the CRTD created a united front that was not simply in opposition to any development, but rather urged (as its name makes clear) thoughtful development that was consistent in tone, height, use and style to the neighborhoods abutting the Pike.

The CRTD goal was master planning for the entire Pike. Any planning process, it argued, had to have meaningful community input. Any subsequent developments would need still further evaluation and review by residential, commercial and institutional interests around the development site.

In March of 1997 residents got part of their wish when legislation sponsored by Rep. Paul Demakis was signed by the Governor. The new law required the Turnpike Authority to work with Boston and its residents in evaluating any proposed development.

It was a good piece of legislation, but the process it envisioned was one that reacted to a development plan. CRTD argued that more was needed. Just as zoning rules serve as guidelines for future development, rules were also needed for the length of the Pike, so that future developers would craft their proposals to fit within some overall plan.

CRTD's logic was unassailable, so much so that the Mayor announced his intention in February to initiate some sort of planning process. Two weeks ago the details of that were made final. The BRA will staff the study process, which will be led by a panel of about 25 residents as well as another 12 elected officials. The task force's report is targeted for completion by the year's end.

So there you have it. In 18 months the city has gone from being an inconsequential factor to leading the planning process. The kudos for making that happen are widely shared, and include the Mayor and elected officials who fought for some say over air rights development. But the real heroes were residents who cared about their homes, their businesses and their neighbors. Their caring has paid off.