Wu names HUD official as Boston’s new planning chief

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu Tuesday named a veteran city planner to spearhead her makeover of the town’s planning and improvement course of.

James Arthur Jemison II, the principal deputy assistant secretary of Housing and City Growth in President Joe Biden’s administration, is scheduled to turn into Boston’s first planning chief in late Might. Via the function, Wu desires to vary how Boston builds.

Wu will ask the board of the Boston Planning and Growth Administration to nominate Jemison to move that company. And it is going to be from that place that Jemison will supervise the remaking of the event course of into two distinct operations: one for planning, the opposite for improvement. On this function, Jemison will coordinate the land use insurance policies throughout all of Boston’s departments, starting from the general public colleges to the transportation division to the workplace of housing.

“On this second of pressing problem and alternative,” Wu stated, “Boston’s progress should mirror the probabilities for our brightest future — from reasonably priced housing and racial fairness, to local weather resilience and wholesome, linked communities.”

Jemison’s appointment returns him to Boston, the place he beforehand served as a state deputy undersecretary of the division of housing and group improvement underneath governor Deval Patrick. He has additionally held planning roles inside The Massachusetts Port Authority and the BPDA underneath its former title the Boston Redevelopment Authority or BRA, as many long-time Bostonians name it.

Jemison acquired his undergraduate training at UMass Amherst, and acquired a masters from MIT.

“I am extremely grateful to Mayor Wu for the chance to deliver my experience and keenness for equitable improvement again to Boston,” Jemison stated. “I’m honored to have the chance to work with Bostonians to reform the event course of and create the type of progress that displays our values.”