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An East Boston nonprofit is challenging a recent state ruling that would prevent affordable housing from being built on a long-vacant waterfront parcel.

A December ruling by the state Office of Coastal Zone Management kept the 102 Border St. property within a designated port area, limiting future development to marine industrial uses.

In a lawsuit filed this week in Suffolk Superior Court, East Boston CDC claims that the decision disregards the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs’ environmental justice policy, which evaluates the effects of development on vulnerable populations.

“Fundamentally, the designation decision is a determination that noxious industrial uses must be located within an environmental justice block group,” attorneys Matthew J. Connolly and Valerie Moore of Nutter, McClennen & Fish wrote in the complaint.

The dispute focuses on the 7-acre vacant property at 102 Border St. and 80 Border St., which contains an art gallery, historical museum and daycare center, both of which are owned by the CDC. 

In December, the state Office of Coastal Zone Management rejected a proposal by the Boston Planning & Development Agency to remove 97 acres of East Boston waterfront from a designated port area. DPA’s are a state regulation that preserve waterfront properties for uses related to the maritime economy.

The agency agreed to remove only 9 acres from the DPA. It left the disputed section of Border Street within the DPA, citing existing piers, suitability of the land for industrial uses and proximity to freight corridors such as the Massachusetts Turnpike and Route 1A.

But in the complaint filed Monday, attorneys for East Boston CDC said the properties should be treated similarly to residential properties north of the site, such as Trinity Financial’s Boston East apartments, not the historic industrial waterfront to the south.

80 Border St., attorneys argued, is landlocked and has no water access at all. And 102 Border St. would require dredging “tens of thousands of cubic yards” of contaminated sediment to become navigable for vessels.

The CDC said it’s had no interest from industrial developers despite decades of attempts to market the property.

The complaint seeks to overturn CZM’s January decision. CZM declined to comment.

CDC Sues State for Blocking Housing in Eastie

by Steve Adams time to read: 1 min
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