Mintz Secures Approval for Hyde Park Residential Project

By order of the Massachusetts Land Court, the Boston Planning and Development Agency approved plans for a 204-unit residential apartment community in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston.
Mintz filed a novel statutory claim—under Chapter 240, § 14A—that allows landowners and developers to ask the Land Court to determine how zoning ordinances apply to their property.
The Land Court held that the BPDA cannot reject or force redesigns of zoning-compliant, as-of-right projects, for which the BPDA’s authority under Article 80 is instead limited to imposing reasonable terms and conditions.

Mintz’s client, Willow Bridge Property Company, submitted plans in 2021 to develop a 200+ unit residential apartment community in Hyde Park. Because of its size, the project was subject to Large Project Review by the BPDA under Article 80 of the Boston Zoning Code.

Despite the project’s compliance with zoning, the BPDA rejected the proposal and insisted on drastic design changes that would have required zoning relief. This left Willow Bridge in a procedural limbo where it was unable to move forward in the Article 80 review process unless it agreed to a complete redesign of its as-of-right project. Facing continued delays and no available path forward, Willow Bridge turned to Mintz to help clarify regulatory boundaries with respect to its as-of-right project.

The Mintz team filed suit in Massachusetts Land Court under Chapter 240, § 14A, an underutilized statute that enables landowners and developers to seek a judicial determination on the extent to which zoning ordinances apply to their property without first exhausting administrative remedies.

Invoking this statute, our team sought a declaration regarding the scope of the BPDA’s authority during Article 80 review and whether the agency could reject or require a redesign of a zoning-compliant project, arguing that the BPDA’s authority with respect to such projects is far more limited than the broad discretion that the BPDA purported to invoke under Article 80.

In April 2025, the Land Court ruled in favor of our client, holding on summary judgment that the BPDA cannot reject a zoning-compliant project or compel a developer to make significant design changes that would require zoning relief. The Court explained that the BPDA’s authority under Article 80 is instead limited to imposing reasonable terms and conditions on as-of-right projects based on the standards set forth in the Zoning Code. Following the ruling, the BPDA voted to approve Willow Bridge’s project. This decision marks the first known Massachusetts case directly addressing the BPDA’s authority when conducting Article 80 review of zoning-compliant projects and provides developers with a clear roadmap when faced with similar opposition from municipal boards/agencies for such projects.