Foundry Row has no height limit on new construction, a fact that has become increasingly urgent as developers propose towers taller than anything currently standing in the former factory district, prompting the city council to debate Tuesday whether it's finally time to draw a line.
The proposal under discussion would cap new construction in Foundry Row at 12 stories, a limit the city’s planning department says would still allow for substantial lab and office growth while preventing what staff called “a permanent, out-of-scale skyline” from emerging in a neighborhood still dotted with low-slung former factory buildings. Planning Director Renee Castillo told the council at least three developers have expressed interest in towers ranging from 16 to 22 stories if no limit is adopted.
“We are at a fork in the road for what Foundry Row becomes over the next twenty years,” Castillo said. “Once you allow the first 20-story tower, you’ve effectively set the market expectation for every project after it.”
Biotech firms want room to grow
Elena Marchetti, chief executive of Kestrel Biologics, told council members a strict height cap could constrain the very growth the city has celebrated in recent budget projections. “Lab space isn’t like office space. We need floor plates that support specialized equipment and airflow systems, and sometimes the only way to fit that on a limited footprint is to build up,” Marchetti said. “I understand the concerns about scale, but I’d ask the council not to solve a displacement problem by making it harder for the companies creating jobs here to expand.”
Aaron Kessler, spokesman for Millrace Development Partners, which has proposed a second Foundry Row project beyond its Foundry District Lofts development, said a rigid citywide number ignored site-specific realities. “A 12-story cap might make sense on one block and be completely wrong for a site three blocks away with better transit access,” Kessler said. “We’d rather see a case-by-case review process than an arbitrary number applied everywhere.”
Tenant advocates say the cap is overdue
Denise Okonkwo-Marsh, lead organizer of the Lowertown Tenant Alliance, said the debate over height was really a debate over who gets to remain in the neighborhood at all. “Every new tower makes the land under it more valuable, and every increase in land value makes it harder for the people who used to live near Foundry Row to stay anywhere close to it,” Okonkwo-Marsh said. “A height cap won’t fix displacement by itself, but letting this go unchecked guarantees it gets worse.”
I keep hearing that a height cap will slow down growth this city needs. What I don’t hear is anyone explaining what happens to the families still living in Foundry Row’s last few affordable blocks once five more towers go up around them without any limit at all.
Denise Okonkwo-Marsh, Lead Organizer, Lowertown Tenant Alliance
Council Member Luis Bettencourt, who represents Foundry Row, said he was still weighing the proposal and had not committed to a position ahead of a formal vote expected within weeks. “I’ve got biotech employers on one side telling me a cap threatens jobs, and I’ve got longtime residents on the other side telling me no cap threatens their ability to stay in the neighborhood,” Bettencourt said. “Both of those things can be true, and I have to find a number that takes both seriously.”
Council Member Aisha Muhammad, who chairs the housing committee, said she was inclined to support a cap but wanted it paired with stronger affordable-housing requirements, similar to the 15 percent income-restricted unit rule adopted for development near the city’s new transit corridor. “A height cap that doesn’t also address who can afford to live under these towers is only solving half the problem,” Muhammad said.
Council President Walter Kowalczyk said he expected the planning department to return with a revised proposal, potentially including the site-specific review process Kessler requested, before the council takes a final vote. “Nobody in this room wants to strangle Foundry Row’s growth, and nobody wants to hand it a blank check either,” Kowalczyk said. “We’re going to spend the next few weeks finding out where the middle actually is.”
Council Member Gary Petrowski, whose Cedar Hollow district sits outside Foundry Row, said he was watching the debate mostly out of curiosity about whether it would set a precedent the council could later apply elsewhere. “If a height cap with an affordability trade-off works here, I might be asking for something similar the next time a developer eyes property near Cedar Hollow,” Petrowski said. “I’ll be paying attention to how this turns out.”
Castillo said her department would incorporate feedback from Tuesday’s meeting and return with a final ordinance for a vote at the council’s next regular session, along with updated estimates of how many additional lab and office jobs a 12-story cap would still accommodate compared with no limit at all.