Moakley Park Governance Strategy

One of Boston's largest waterfront public spaces, Moakley Park’s 60 acres of athletic fields and recreational space rests at a key juncture between many distinct Boston neighborhoods and
Boston Harbor. Moakley Park’s owner and operator, the City of Boston’s Parks and Recreation Department (BPRD), is leading a comprehensive redesign process focused on inclusion and access, recreation and play, public health and community wellbeing, and resiliency and the environment. The plan for the park expands the type and caliber of recreational activities offered in the space and creates accessibility both for residents and for the City of Boston more broadly, Resilient design will protect the park and surrounding neighborhoods from future coastal flooding.

JLP+D is collaborating with Stoss Landscape Urbanism and other partners to determine public-private partnership opportunities for the future governance of Moakley Park that would enable the BPRD to work with an external partner to deliver the highest quality park for the City. The aspirational design, programming, and maintenance plan for Moakley Park will require an efficient, nimble, effective, and sustainable governance structure that leverages the strength of public and private partners.

Through extensive interviews and research, JLP+D is examining the strengths and weaknesses of current park governance models in Boston . Along with precedent case studies highlighting best practices from around the country, and interviews with local climate, housing, service, developer, public sector, and institutional stakeholders, JLP+D is creating a set of guiding principles for Moakley Park governance. Taken alongside other metrics, these principles will be used to evaluate the potential effectiveness of various governance models. JLP+D is also utilizing case studies to create high level operational revenue projections that will have additional implications in determining the right governance structure for the park.