Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards is calling for an overhaul of the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals, after recent revelations of an alleged bribery scheme aimed at influencing the ZBA; and after a report by WGBH News found a former ZBA member had on various occasions voted to approve zoning relief for properties whose sale he would later help broker.
Edwards' proposal, which she plans to introduce as a home rule petition at the council’s Wednesday meeting, would impose new requirements around transparency, including new reporting requirements on ZBA activity and decisions, and would curtail actual or potential conflicts of interest by barring ZBA staff from participating in real estate business.
The proposal would also drastically alter the structure of the board, which is appointed by the mayor but whose members are nominated by various interest groups specified in state law.
Specifically, Edwards would eliminate the current requirement that one member of the ZBA be nominated by the Greater Boston Real Estate Board.
The most recent member to hold that seat, Boston real estate broker Craig Galvin, resigned abruptly days after a longtime City Hall employee, John Lynch, pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe as part of a scheme to influence a member of the ZBA. The charges against Lynch do not say who that member was.
A recent report by WGBH News found that Galvin had, on various occasions, acted as the listed real estate broker for properties that had received zoning variances from the ZBA, including with his vote, that allowed developers to expand or construct buildings that would otherwise have violated local zoning laws.
Edwards said her proposal should not be taken as implying wrongdoing by anyone, including Galvin, who has served on the ZBA.
Rather, Edwards told WGBH News, she is seeking to correct a structure she says inevitably creates the potential for or appearance of a conflict of interest.
“Right now, if you are currently making money as a real estate agent as an architect … in the City of Boston … the issue for a lot of folks is there is no way you can be in the business and not be in the business,” Edwards said.
“It does not mean we shouldn’t have a perspective from those industries,” Edwards said. “It means that person should be actively involved in that industry right now and also on the ZBA.”
Edwards' proposal goes beyond eliminating a seat reserved for the city's real estate industry. She is calling for board members to represent "perspectives from affordable housing, civil rights and fair housing, environmental protection and climate change, urban planning, homeowners, renters, and expertise in zoning and the general laws."
Because the ZBA’s membership is laid out in state law, any changes to the board would have to be submitted to the state legislature as a home rule petition.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh did not immediately return a request for comment on Edwards’ proposal.
