Suffolk U. Agrees to Substantial Restrictions to Build Around Beacon Hill

One of Boston’s “deepest town-gown quarrels” — that between Suffolk University and the Beacon Hill neighborhood — has seen a breakthrough, thanks to some unusual and substantial restrictions that the university has agreed to.

The Boston Globe reports that a “nonexpansion zone” has been enlarged around the neighborhood. The university will also freeze its enrollment at 5,000 full-time undergraduates for 10 years to limit its growth and remove classrooms from some parts of the neighborhood.

In return, the neighborhood will not oppose the university’s plan to build a 10-story academic building and developments in three other locations.

John Nucci, Suffolk’s vice president for external affairs and a negotiator in the deal, told the Globe that the agreement would help mend relations between the university and Beacon Hill. “It shifts the university’s whole center of gravity away from Beacon Hill,” Mr. Nucci said. “This bodes well for a peaceful coexistence between the Beacon Hill neighborhood and Suffolk.”

The neighbors conveyed relief. “We know we don’t have to worry about Suffolk building in certain areas anymore,” said Robert Whitney, a member of the association’s board of directors and the negotiating team. “We had reached a saturation point where we really couldn’t take any more.”