Mayor Michelle Wu’s major priorities of rent control and BPDA reform have passed the city council and now are on track to make the difficult trudge up Beacon Hill.
The council approved both rent control and reform of the Boston Planning & Development Agency by 11-2 votes during the body’s Wednesday meeting.
The council approved both in what were basically the versions originally submitted by Wu, so she’s expected to sign them. Once that ink’s dry, both bills then head to the State House, where they need the approval of both chambers of the Legislature and then the governor’s signature in order to go into effect.
“Today the City Council delivered a strong message that the city of Boston needs the tools to address our housing crisis,” Wu told reporters in a press avail in City Hall shortly after both bills passed. “We are sending a big message and look forward to continue doing everything that we can so that Bostonians can afford to live in this incredible city and stay here right in our neighborhoods.”
These are two of Wu’s top priorities — topics she talked about as a city councilor, ran on in her 2021 mayoral campaign and most recently laid out as priorities in this year’s State of the City speech.
The rent-control bill would cap year-over-year rent hikes at 6% plus consumer price index increases, to a max of 10%. The rule would carve out exemptions for new construction and small landlords, as well as strengthening protections against evictions.
“This is a monumental act by the city of Boston,” Government Operations Chair Ricardo Arroyo said as he recommended passage of the rent-control bill following a couple of hearings in recent weeks.
When Wu initially proposed it, she took flak from both the left and the right. Multiple progressive city councilors criticized her proposal as too loose, but all of them ultimately voted in favor.
“I’m really happy with that compromise,” City Councilor Kendra Lara, one of those who’d originally critiqued the proposal from the left.
Industry groups have hammered this proposal from the other side, including launching a $400,000 campaign against it, saying it’s a failed policy that will cut down on new housing.
“As the bill makes its way to Beacon Hill, we are prepared to expand the Rent Control Hurts Housing campaign to educate voters and legislators on the serious harm rent control will have on the residents of the Commonwealth,” the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, which is running the campaign, said in a statement afterward.
Before the vote, City Councilor Michael Flaherty, who’d expressed reservations about the issue previously, proposed an amendment to exempt landlords who own six or fewer units and live in Boston. The legislation as it exists exempts apartments owned by landlords who own six or fewer units and live in the building themselves.
“They are what makes our city the greatest city in the country,” Flaherty said of small landlords like this.
His amendment failed, only getting four votes.
City Councilors Frank Baker and Erin Murphy were the lone votes against both matters.
“We’re not making it easy to build units,” Baker said. “The landlord — the owner — is evil in this discussion. It has to stop.”
Wu’s called to “abolish the BPDA” for years and though the bill uses that language, her officials seem to have backed away from it. The BPDA high-ups who attended a hearing on the matter last week pitched it to the council as more of a “consolidation” — a bookkeeping maneuver that would combine the two wings of the organization under one banner while eliminating some old urban-renewal rules.
But while Wu eventually found a largely compliant council once the rubber hit the road, the Legislature is a different beast. It’s long been known as a graveyard for these kinds of bills, called home-rule petitions, from cities and towns that need its approval.
Senate President Karen Spilka’s office kept its powder dry and said “The Senate President looks forward to this proposal going through a transparent legislative process, and will confer with her members on this and other issues that come before the Senate this session.”
House Speaker Ron Mariano’s office pointed to previous comments in which he has said he looks forward to hearing more about the proposals.
Gov. Maura Healey said she’s going to “take a look at it.”
“I support communities and their efforts to do what they think is necessary when it comes to housing,” Healey told reporters.
Grace Zokovitch contributed reporting.
