(Image source from: bostonglobe.com)

Boston:
The Boston Planning & Development Agency, for years has kept a wooden scale model of downtown in an area on the ninth floor of The City Hall, Boston. It is a mode for officials to see what proposed buildings would look like in context.

At present, the BPDA is bringing that concept into existence. The agency on Tuesday disclosed a new digital 3-D model of Boston on its website, the latest step in the BPDA’s push to be more crystal clear, and to spark conversations about readying for the city’s future.

It is a model of the entire city, with 129,000 buildings from East Boston to Mattapan. The map is detailed enough to capture backyard sheds, rooftop furniture, and tons of trees and it includes tools that allow anyone to layer on zoning maps, schools, MBTA stops, and even flood-prone areas.

“This allows the public to see what we’re seeing. It helps us with community engagement and allows us to step up our ability to communicate with people about their city,” said BPDA director Brian Golden.

The map was inspired by the word over shadows cast on the Boston Common and Public Garden by the proposed skyscraper at Winthrop Square. City officials found themselves encouraging complex changes to state law to license the tower based only on snapshots of shadows supplied by developer Millennium Partners. This new system allows anyone to look at shadows anywhere in the city at any time of day and  year.

Golden and BPDA planning director Sara Myerson said, they envision making good use of the digital model at community meetings for upcoming zoning plans in Downtown Crossing and other neighborhoods, and for planning around Climate Ready Boston, the city’s road map for dealing with rising sea levels and other effects of climate change.

At present, the publicly available map only includes buildings that are built or under construction, not those proposed or still in permitting. But an in-house model includes planned buildings too. Staff members also are processing tools to show where, for instance, you could see a proposed building from ground level, and how many floors of a building would have views of the Public Garden, or Boston Harbor.

In a city where development debates can get ferocious and where BPDA often finds itself in the crossfire, the agency hopes making more information accessible will improve communication.

By Sowmya Sangam