Making Something Out of Nothing: The Chinatown Air Rights Development Project

How the community is working to build new homes, shops and parks over the Massachusetts Turnpike

"The Turnpike air rights are among the most valuable development opportunities in the City of Boston."
- Mayor Thomas M. Menino

Do you find it uncomfortable to walk to Super 88, Ming's Market, or Wollaston's Market from Bay Village and Chinatown? Have you had difficulty finding housing in Chinatown and the South End? Do your children need more space to play outdoors? Would you like to start your own business but have not found the necessary space to do so? Many residents of the Bay Village, Chinatown and South End neighborhoods answer these questions with a resounding "YES!" There is a solution to these problems and many others that face our community.

The solution to these very real issues can be found, ironically, in thin air - over the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) highway that cuts through Bay Village, Chinatown and the South End. The solution is to build more land - in essence, the canyon formed by the Turnpike can be filled in with housing, shops, parks, schools - what ever it is we feel the neighborhood and community needs, wants and deserves. Since March of 1999, the Chinatown Air Rights Development (CARD) Project has worked with individuals and representatives from these three neighborhoods to craft a development proposal that builds over the Turnpike. The CARD Project formed into five sub-groups: Housing, Open Space/Public Facilities/Cultural Uses, Traffic/Transportation, Retail/Business, Development Feasibility/Strategy. Each of these groups is examining one particular aspect of the needs of the community and how new developments over the Turnpike can help satisfy this need.

The five study sub-groups are meeting regularly to discuss, analyze and conceive of potential developments. After a series of community workshops that cumulated in a directive from the community itself, ACDC initiated this project over 1 year ago. Since then support for this project has been wide spread with members joining the CARD Project as individuals and neighborhood residents and as representatives from other neighborhood agencies, institutions, and local businesses. The City, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council have all expressed interest in and support for this project.

As the Massachusetts Turnpike passes through our neighborhoods, it is below ground level. The Turnpike cut through our neighborhoods from east to west. Four roads cross above both the highway and these railroad tracks - Harrison Avenue, Washington Street, Shawmut Avenue, and Tremont Street - from north to south. When the Turnpike was built, land where the highway currently exists was taken by the government by forcing the owners of the land to sell it to the government. It is estimated that over 1,000 residents and families were displaced when this happened and the mostly brick row houses on the land were removed to make way for the highway.

Over the years, as the City of Boston endured the cycles of the real estate industry there were attempts, some successful, to build over the Turnpike by covering the highway and building on top of it - essentially turning "thin air" into land that could be built upon. The most successful and visible attempt is the Prudential Building complex, which includes a skyscraper, housing, and a shopping mall. Other attempts to build on this "thin air" or "air rights" - the right to build in the air space over the highway - were less successful. To help promote developments over the Turnpike, the City and other public agencies have conducted planning efforts to show how it might happen.

This civic vision will provide a framework for the future CAC's and the City of Boston to review air rights proposals.

A Civic Vision for Turnpike Air Rights in Boston

Most recently, the City of Boston commissioned a group of citizens and community members to create a report outlining urban design principles and real estate development guidelines for the air rights over the Turnpike. This report entitled A Civic Vision for Turnpike Air Rights in Boston is a good "road map" to the solution to address the needs of our neighborhoods in that it points everyone in the right direction. The problem is that this "road map" provides directions for anyone who wishes to read it, including for-profit real estate developers who are motivated primarily by profit and therefore cannot place the needs of our community at the forefront.

In partnership with other neighborhood agencies and representatives, the Asian Community Development Corporation is studying the potential for developments on the Massachusetts Turnpike air rights parcels, otherwise known as Parcels 20, 21, 22 and 23. These air rights parcels abut the Chinatown, Bay Village and the South End neighborhoods. Developments on these parcels can have major positive or negative effects on these abutting neighborhoods. The Chinatown Air Rights Development (CARD) Project is an intensive, community-driven development planning study that is intended to give these communities direct control over the future of the air rights. Through this process the potential value and impact of developments on the Turnpike Air Rights will be determined. The CARD project is a means of ensuring positive impacts of Turnpike air rights development.

There is ample opportunity for the community to input into this process. Not only are many community constituencies represented on the study teams, an effort is being made to make presentations about CARD to all community agencies. The proposed development scheme will be presented to the community and feedback will be collected to ensure that the communities' interests are accurately represented. In the end, community support for this project will be crucial.

The CARD Project is a process for the community to learn about, understand, and stake a claim to the development of air rights parcels over the Massachusetts Turnpike. In coming together to discover how and why the air rights can be developed, we are ensuring that no matter what happens, the community will have a place in the decision-making process.