Brayton Point, a shuttered coal plant, sits on a state-designated port area. Fifty years after they were originally established, Massachusetts Designated Port Areas have not undergone a comprehensive review or any type of reform to ensure they are responsive to present day dynamics. Photo: IStock
January 29, 2025 (Boston, MA) — Conservation Law Foundation as part of the Boston Waterfront Partners—community-based organizations dedicated to the sustainable development and equitable use of Boston’s waterfront areas—released a new report analyzing the challenges facing Boston’s waterfront and working port communities, as a result of Boston’s outdated Inner Harbor Designated Port Area (DPA) regulations. The report offers a roadmap for revisiting how DPAs can better serve the people and industries they were originally built to protect, and support the region’s evolving economic, climate resilience, and public health priorities.
“Massachusetts’ waterfronts have always played a critical role in the state’s economy, supporting our fishing, shipping, and energy industries, among others. But those industrial uses haven’t always benefitted the communities that host them,” said Julia Carlton MacKay, Director of Community Resilience for CLF. “By reimagining our working waterfronts, we can drive innovation, create sustainable jobs, and ensure that the communities hosting these industries have a meaningful stake in their success. With the right balance, working ports can support both economic growth and environmental stewardship for years to come.”
Massachusetts DPAs, first established by the Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) in 1978, have been essential to protecting and growing the Commonwealth’s vital water-dependent industries for decades. Boston’s Inner Harbor DPAs have a critical role to play in maintaining Boston’s working port as an economic driver, protecting essential waterfront infrastructure, providing local job opportunities, facilitating water transit, and promoting climate resilient communities. Yet, 50 years after they were originally established, Massachusetts DPAs have not undergone a comprehensive review or any type of reform to ensure they are responsive to present day dynamics.
“Designated Port Areas hold massive potential to not only safeguard Boston’s existing maritime industry, but also promote an emerging and cutting-edge blue economy, drive waterfront innovation, advance environmental justice initiatives, create workforce development opportunities, meaningfully engage local communities, and much more,” said Jill Valdes Horwood, Director of the Barr Foundation’s Waterfront Initiative. “This report underscores why it is imperative that we reach this potential and reimagine the role that Designated Port Areas play, today and for future generations, in building and maintaining an economically vibrant and resilient working port, city, and region.”
The report identifies several challenges facing Boston’s Inner Harbor DPAs, including:
- The regulatory frameworks governing Boston’s Inner Harbor DPAs are outdated, failing to account for the latest economic, climate, and public health concerns and realities, and leaving much of their transformative potential for communities untapped.
- Increasing and competing cross-sector pressures and priorities that are vying for use of DPAs, and utilizing regulatory loopholes to undermine them, have weakened their integrity, and strained their effectiveness.
- A lack of public-private collaboration to address the challenges posed by DPAs has hindered long-term planning and investment.
The report, which was commissioned by the Boston Waterfront Partners and researched and written by HR&A Advisors with funding from the Barr Foundation, was developed after careful data analysis of existing regional conditions and case studies investigating innovative regulatory approaches in other port cities, as well as stakeholder interviews with community members, waterfront and environmental justice advocacy organizations, and members of Boston’s maritime and development industry.
The full report can be read here.
About Boston Waterfront Partners: The Boston Waterfront Partners—a coalition of community-based organizations including Boston Harbor Now, Boston Harbor Women of Color Coalition, Charles River Conservancy, Coalition for a Resilient and Inclusive Waterfront, Conservation Law Foundation, Friends of the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway, GreenRoots, Harborfront Neighborhood Association, Mystic River Watershed Association, New England Aquarium, Piers Park Sailing Center, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, The American City Coalition, and Trustees of Reservations—is dedicated to the sustainable development and equitable use of Boston’s waterfront areas. More information about the Partners can be found here.
Experts are available for further comment.
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