Public Improvement Commission hearing

PIC COVID-19 Update, Temporary Practices

With the ongoing public health concerns surrounding the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Public Improvement Commission (PIC) has implemented the following temporary practices and procedures in an effort to promote social distancing and to comply with federal, state, and local directives:

• Upcoming PIC hearings will tentatively be held as scheduled.
• Hearing participants will be digitally connected, per the City’s Department of Innovation & Technology.
• Members of the public are strongly encouraged to participate in the hearings virtually; all hearings will continue to be televised and may also be viewed online via Boston TV.
• Written testimony for all agenda items will continue to be accepted via email; testimony should be directed to PIC@boston.gov.
• Until further notice, only one full-size set of all PIC plans (rather than the customary three) is required to be submitted by the relevant filing deadline.  All PIC plans, including revised versions, are required to also be submitted electronically as .pdf’s.
• A project may be considered eligible for a New Business agenda only if a 100% complete submission package (one hard copy of everything, including plans) is delivered to the PIC office by 4:00 PM on the Thursday prior to the target PIC hearing.  Incomplete and/or piecemeal submissions will not be placed on a hearing agenda.  For additional information on submission requirements, please reference the relevant PIC procedural checklist(s) found online: boston.gov/PIC#related-documents.
• In addition to the typical hard-copy submission, a prospective New Business project is also required to submit a digital copy of all submission requirements (plans as noted above, signed petitions, agency responses, etc.) to PIC@boston.gov.
• Public access to City Hall continues to be limited.  As such, hard copy submissions should be made via standard mail.  Should any particular submission need to be delivered by hand, please contact PIC staff ahead of time via email to confirm staff availability to receive such a submission and to schedule a delivery time. Unannounced/unexpected in-person deliveries may not be accepted by City Hall staff.
• All dissemination of PIC plans to Public Agency and Utility Company reviewers should be done via email; certified mailings are no longer necessary.
• PIC staff will not be accepting in-person meetings until further notice; requests for phone and teleconference meetings will be accommodated to every reasonable extent.  Such requests should be scheduled in advance via email.
• PIC staff will continue to be available via email during normal business hours.

These practices should be considered in effect immediately and will remain in effect until further notice by PIC staff.  Updates to these practices will be posted as appropriate.  Please feel free to contact PIC@boston.gov should you have any questions.  Thank you.