Boston Imagine Boston 2030
Core idea
QOL, resilience, equitable growth
Why it matters
First citywide plan in 50 years
Description
A comprehensive citywide plan for Boston published in 2017 under Mayor Martin Walsh, the city's first such plan in roughly half a century. Developed with extensive public engagement, it identifies expanded neighbourhoods and growth areas on former industrial and edge sites, and frames goals around quality of life, affordability, climate resilience to coastal flooding, and equitable access to opportunity. It is a guiding framework linked to companion initiatives such as Climate Ready Boston rather than a regulatory zoning map.
Significance
Imagine Boston 2030 signalled the return of citywide comprehensive planning to a city that had governed growth through project-by-project negotiation since the urban renewal era. It reflects the 2010s American planning consensus that pairs growth accommodation with resilience and equity language, and it set the stage for subsequent debates over reforming the Boston Planning and Development Agency and the city's zoning.
What shaped it
- Urban resilience (2013)
- New Urban Agenda (2016)
- The Just City (Fainstein) (2010)
Sources
- https://www.wbur.org/news/2017/07/11/imagine-boston-2030-final-plan
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/05/18/the-imagine-boston-plan-almost-done-here-are-som