Just when it seemed like a 20-year-old state law restricting shadows cast by tall buildings on the Boston Common and the Public Garden was going to be relaxed, state lawmakers hit the pause button.
Before a public hearing on the measure that would pave the way for a proposed 775-ft-tall skyscraper called Winthrop Square, state and city officials reached a tentative agreement that would allow developer Millennium Partners to build the billion-dollar tower on the site of a defunct city parking garage. The deal would reportedly help fund the 7-acre Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, which abuts the proposed tower and is on state-owned land created by the Big Dig. The deal, which would require approvals from several oversight boards, would earmark $5 million to maintain the Greenway from the $153 million Millennium Partners is paying for the city-owned parcel.