Designated Port Area Regulatory Reforms
March 18, 2025
As part of the 2024 economic development bill, or Mass Leads Act, statutory language was included to update the scope and function of designated port areas (DPAs) so that any DPA upgrades would incorporate climate resilience for the first time. With DPAs traditionally intended to serve multiple uses across maritime interests, economic development, and waterfront access, DPAs remain as critical components of Boston’s economic competitiveness, and will need to become more resilient to increasing climate hazards impacting the Boston region. In Boston Harbor, A Better City (ABC) member businesses and institutions are climate resilience leaders who work in the South Boston/Seaport DPA, the East Boston DPA, and the Mystic River DPAs.
In February 2025, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) and Department of Coastal Zone Management (MassCZM) hosted a series of public hearings to solicit input on anticipated regulations associated with section 295 of the Mass Leads Act, regarding DPAs. In anticipation of regulatory language, A Better City offered a series of recommendations, as follows:
- Encouraging Co-Benefits in Resilient Designated Port Area Project Implementation: ABC appreciates the inclusion of climate resilience criteria as they relate to the development of regulations for Designated Port Areas (DPAs) in Section 295 of the Mass Leads Act, specifically the inclusion of coastal flood resilience in Section D, and inland neighborhood resilience to flooding in Section G. A Better City recommends expanding these criteria within pending DPA regulations to encompass more holistic approaches to climate resilience across multiple climate hazards, including coastal and stormwater flooding, storm surge, extreme heat, drought, and high-velocity wind. Additionally, A Better City recommends encouraging further co-benefits from DPA projects across climate benefits, community benefits (like enhanced public access to the waterfront), preservation of water-dependent uses, and local economic development.
- Clarifying “Net Loss” Within Section H: Section H within Section 295 of the Mass Leads Act references “an assessment of new and adjacent areas that could be added to designated port areas to reduce net loss of acreage.” Given emerging biodiversity policies in Massachusetts that may incorporate principles of “no net loss” of biodiversity, ABC recommends clarifying in DPA regulatory language whether the reference to reduction of net loss of acreage in Section H also encompasses loss of associated biodiversity located within DPA acreage.
- Ensuring DPA Regulations Maintain Opportunities for Water-Dependent Uses and Economic Development: ABC recommends emphasizing the maintenance of DPAs as hubs for water-dependent uses and maritime activity, alongside climate resilience, throughout pending regulatory language associated with the Mass Leads Act. Such regulations would help to maintain the Greater Boston region as globally competitive and vibrant, while also helping to protect the neighborhoods behind DPAs with broader climate resilience enhancements that go beyond DPA property boundaries. ABC also recommends ensuring that pending regulatory language for DPAs aligns with climate resilience and other co-benefits associated with Chapter 91 and parallel resilient policy implementation, including the maintenance of waterfront property for a blend of uses.
- Convening DPA Environmental Justice and Developer Focus Groups: To better understand the needs, challenges, and goals of community groups, waterfront developers, and maritime businesses, ABC recommends hosting DPA focus groups on pending regulatory language. Three inner harbor DPAs exist in Boston that abut environmental justice neighborhoods, with long-standing climate and public health challenges needing prioritized investment. Waterfront developers have also expressed concerns and challenges with climate resilient project implementation, due to their inability to get such projects permitted.
- Convening Statewide Focus Groups on Funding Mechanisms for DPA Upgrades: In addition to hosting focus groups with environmental justice organizations and community leaders, as well as private developers, as mentioned above, it would be helpful to host state-level focus groups to solicit community input and discuss potential funding mechanisms and opportunities for DPA implementation, including the recommendations for a DPA decarbonization finance assistance program and DPA resiliency grant program to help maritime businesses implement climate initiatives, as recommended in the Boston Waterfront Partners’ Strengthening the Urban Harbor: Policy & Investment Recommendations for Boston’s Working Ports
- Establishing a Resilient Permitting Working Group or Commission: A Better City recommends forming a Resilient Permitting Commission or Working Group, similar and parallel to the Commission on Clean Energy Permitting and Siting, to explore how to accelerate and improve permitting for resilient infrastructure projects and development projects in Massachusetts, and when needed, to explore amendments to existing permitting regulations. If possible, A Better City could co-chair this Commission with a peer environmental organization, and membership of the Working Group could include peer environmental, conservation, and transportation organizations and state agencies, including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Boston Waterfront Partners, municipal planning organizations, economic development councils like the Seaport Economic Council, and transportation management agencies. Committee representatives should include those engaged in the implementation of parallel resilience regulatory processes, including: the Wetlands Protection Act (310 CMR 10), the Boston Wetlands Ordinance, Chapter 91 (310 CMR 9.00), the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (301 CMR 11.00), the Massachusetts Building Code (780 CMR), Historic Resources (Section 106), and representatives relative to City of Boston resilience project approvals (like the Office of Climate Resilience, Public Improvement Commission, Transportation Department, Fire Department, and Parks and Recreation).
- Expanding the Scope of the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank to Fund Resilience: As Climate Chief Hoffer acknowledged in the 2023 Climate Chief Report, even if Massachusetts could leverage the full potential of federal funding like Inflation Reduction Act funds in Massachusetts, then there would still be a 70-90% funding gap for implementing climate solutions. A Better City strongly recommends expanding the scope and scale of the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank to also fund climate resilience alongside affordable housing decarbonization, which would help to attract additional private capital to climate solutions in Massachusetts, including funds for the implementation of waterfront climate resilience initiatives in and adjacent to DPAs.
After receiving a series of public comments offered at hearings as well as via written comments, MassDEP and MassCZM will integrate relevant suggestions into regulatory language currently under development in the coming months. A Better City will keep track of regulatory language development and provide additional comments as needed. For ABC’s full comment letter on DPAs, please see here. For more information, please contact Isabella Gambill.
