Boston’s groundwater zoning rules are set to be substantially streamlined for some projects, reducing bureaucratic wait times by months for internal renovations.

City officials revealed the proposal on August 19 in a public meeting organized in collaboration with the Boston Groundwater Trust (BGT). If the changes get approval, a process that will take several months, they would remove the groundwater zoning district’s largest friction point with development in Boston without significantly impacting water levels.

The Groundwater Conservation Overlay District (GCOD) is a zoning area covering much of the Fenway, Back Bay, South End and Downtown. Construction in the area must include the addition of rainwater capture infrastructure to bolster groundwater levels and preserve the wooden pylons that support buildings on the city’s extensive infilled terrain.

While GCOD is beneficial for the city’s infrastructure, the Trust’s Executive Director Christian Simonelli told The Boston Guardian that its current implementation has generated plenty of complaints over the years around indoor renovations.

Most projects in the district, including any substantial rehabilitations or renovations affecting 50% or more of the property’s current value, must be reviewed by the BGT and the Boston Water and Sewer Department before getting approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA), which can take months.

“Over the years, yeah, people have said, ‘Yeesh, all I’m doing is some work on the inside, how come I have to get in this queue where it’s going to take me like six months to get my building permit?’” Simonelli said. “We’ve heard those cases, and the GCOD zoning has been established now for 20 years. Over time we’ve looked at the process, and when Inspectional Services approached us about changes we said, ‘Let’s put this on your radar.’”

Jack Halverson, the planning official overseeing the project, said in the meeting that the ZBA has seen roughly 120 GCOD cases since 2022. Forty-seven of them needed no other zoning variances from the ZBA, and the “vast majority” of those only triggered GCOD because of that substantial rehabilitation threshold.

Reducing the complexity of Boston’s zoning code has been a prominent goal of Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration, running in parallel to her Article 80 reforms that passed the Zoning Commission in early August. The Inspectional Services Department approached the BGT roughly a year ago as part of the downsizing effort, targeting unnecessary bureaucracy and duplicate language.

Planners have settled on exempting those indoor renovation projects from requiring ZBA approval, potentially saving months of waiting for projects that couldn’t even impact groundwater levels anyway.

Other requirements would remain in place, including review of the project by the BGT and city departments.

While August 19 was the last public meeting dedicated to the proposal, it will also be up for BPDA Board approval September 18 and Zoning Commission approval October 15. Members of the public looking to submit comment can do it at those times or by getting in touch with Halverson.

Public response at the August meeting was small and positive, with no members of the public or political representatives voicing any objection. With the administrative update sailing smoothly, Boston’s groundwater community is free to focus on fortifying the city against increasingly unpredictable weather. “We’re in a bit of a drought period right now and could certainly use some rain,” Simonelli said. “...It really does seem like every year we’re seeing these big swings month by month. We had over eight inches of rain in May, typically we have four. Then you look at June which typically has four and we had an inch and a half. One month you have a deluge and the next you’re well below your average.”