Bunker Hill
Housing Redevelopment

There are currently 42 buildings on the site that will be demolished and replaced with 16 new buildings.

There are currently 1,110 units on the site that will be demolished in phases over the course of the project.

2,699 units will be built on site - including 1,010 deeply affordable replacement units and 1,689 market-rate units.

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No, the BHA has announced that they are replacing the other 100 deeply affordable units off-site at another location in Charlestown so there will be no loss of any deeply affordable units in Charlestown.

All of the units will be rental apartments, with a mix of market-rate and deeply affordable units.

For the market-rate units, it will be a mix of studios, one, two, and three bedrooms. Deeply affordable units will be a mix of one, two, three, and four bedrooms.

The maximum building height will be 10 stories, with those buildings located near the Tobin Bridge and the center of the site.

Along Bunker Hill Street, buildings will be 4 stories. Along Medford Street buildings will be 4 stories across from residential areas, and up to 6 stories across from the high school playing fields.

Our plan calls for a total of 7 acres of open space, of which 2. 7 acres will be designated for publicly accessible open space concentrated in four large-format areas throughout the site. Altogether, the publicly accessible open spaces on the site will be more than the size of two football fields. We will work closely with the community to design and program these park-type spaces.

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Preserving these trees is a priority to the design and development teams. As part of the overall Master Plan effort, we have engaged an Arborist to provide an independent survey and accounting of the Bunker Hill trees. This work will provide three important resources. First, the detailed survey will allow us to accurately locate each tree on site and to work with the Architecture and Civil Engineering teams to identify trees which are “most preservable” early in the design process. This evaluation will take into account factors such as the location of the tree within the proposed master plan; adjacency to built environment changes which would affect light levels and root extents; and proposed grading changes.  

The second major resource is an evaluation of the current health of the existing trees. Like the current housing stock, many of the trees date to the original development in the early1940s and have not have the benefit of sustained maintenance throughout the decades. The Arborist’s assessment will give the design team tools to identify which trees might be expected to thrive for years to come and which are nearing the end of their natural lifespan. With this knowledge, the design team can prioritize the preservation of our healthiest trees and allow them to serve as the foundation for a new urban forestry experience.

Finally, the Arborist’s report will identify the current level of species diversity. Species diversity is an incredibly important factor in planning for climate and ecological resiliency. Providing a wide variety of individual tree species protects the urban forest from depletion as a result of disease, invasive pest or inability to adapt to radical climate shifts. Species diversity also provides habitat resources to a wider array of urban wildlife, birds and insect communities. In understanding the current plant community, the design team will be able to develop a proposed tree palette which acknowledges the current species range and provides a wider range of supplemental species in the form of new trees. This expansion of species diversity will continue beyond the trees and include a broad selection of native/adaptive shrubs and perennials – replacing the current landscape largely dominated by yews and grass.

This report will be shared when the Arborist has completed the survey.

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There will be 70,000 SF of community and retail space.

Yes, there will be a community center. The location has not yet been determined.

We do not yet know the exact number of parking spots that will be added. This will be determined through the Article 80 process with feedback from the community.

We officially resumed our Article 80 process after we filed our Draft Project Impact Report (DPIR) on February 18, 2020. However, the public process was paused, and public meetings were postponed in March due to COVID-19. We resumed that public process with our first BPDA public meeting on September 9, 2020, to be followed by additional IAG and public meetings for full public review. Subsequent phases will also be taken through a full Article 80 process.

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The Phase 1 waiver is for the state MEPA (Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act) process, not the city process. We are able to request this because as a standalone project the first phase of the Bunker Hill Housing Redevelopment (the first two buildings) would not exceed mandatory environmental requirements to be subject to MEPA review. Our purpose in requesting this waiver is that it enables us to start construction for the first phase only before the MEPA FEIR (Final Environment Impact Report/state) is completed for the overall site plan.

This is an administrative measure that does not impact the City public review process in any way and does not change our commitment to building all buildings using Passive House design – the highest environmental efficiency standard in the world for greenhouse gas emissions reductions and sustainability for residential buildings. The environmental impact report, required by MEPA, will cover the entire development area, including the two buildings in Phase 1. We will not proceed with subsequent phases until the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is approved for the entire site.

We have not requested any kind of waiver from the BPDA and there is no change in the BPDA Article 80 public process for the overall site plan or the first phase.

Statement from BPDA: The MEPA process is a state process, and separate from the BPDA’s Article 80 review. The BPDA is fully committed to conducting a full Article 80 review process for the Bunker Hill Housing Redevelopment proposal, including the public review of Phase 1 and all future phases. The comment period for the project is open until May 11, and we encourage the public to continue to share their feedback on the proposed project.

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No. The Phase 1 waiver does not affect the Article 80 process. The MEPA process is a state process and separate from the BPDA’s Article 80 review. The BPDA is fully committed to conducting a full Article 80 review process for the Bunker Hill Housing Redevelopment proposal, including the public review of Phase 1 and all future phases.

Due to the delays associated with COVID-19, the MEPA Phase 1 waiver is no longer relevant. We submitted our Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) to MEPA in July 2020 and have now received our final MEPA certificate for the entire site, including Phase 1.

Prior to COVID we sought a waiver because of timing considerations.  We wanted to be sure that the project could start as soon as the Article 80process was complete.   We continued to engage with the MEPA office regularly since the City public process was paused in March and have now completed the full MEPA review process.

We submitted our Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) to MEPA in July 2020 and have now received our final MEPA certificate for the entire site, including Phase 1.

Prior to COVID we sought a waiver because of timing considerations.  We wanted to be sure that the project could start as soon as the Article 80 process was complete. We continued to engage with the MEPA office regularly since the City public process was paused in March and have now completed the full MEPA review process.

Site preparation and demolition is projected to start mid-2021 for the first two buildings (Building F and Building M).

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8-10 years

You will be notified 9 months to a year in advance of when you will move out of your current apartment. At that time, a relocation specialist will work with you to identify the best options for your family. The redevelopment team will maximize the ability to provide on-site, one-way moves for residents. Residents in Phase 1A can click here for more information about relocation.

Boston Housing Authority has hired a relocation specialist to handle this process. They will reach out to you at the appropriate time. In the meantime, you can reach out to BHA staff, Amy Tran at 617-988-4316 with questions.

Yes, everyone who currently lives in the development and wants to return will be able to.

The land will remain under Boston Housing Authority (BHA) ownership, with each building developed as a privately-owned building subject to a 99-year ground lease with the BHA. Affordable units will remain affordable under the ground-lease.

The new buildings will be managed by a management company hired by the developer with input from the BHA and CRA. Existing buildings will continue to be managed by the BHA until demolished.

Due to a lack of sufficient federal capital funding to upgrade and preserve the development, the BHA entered into a partnership with a private development team (Corcoran/LMP) to redevelop the property to ensure the long-term preservation of the site.

There are both mixed-income buildings (market-rate and deeply affordable units) and all affordable buildings in the development.

• There are no 100% market-rate buildings.
• The unit mix in the mixed-income buildings is currently 78% market-rate and 22% deeply affordable.
• The unit mix in the overall development is 63% market-rate and 37% deeply affordable.