Illegal convention plan

The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center’s plan to double its size has run into its first roadblock. The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority unveiled a proposal for a 1,000-room hotel and more than 600,000 square feet of exhibit, meeting and auditorium space to be added Dec. 3, 2009. According to a state law, adopted by the Massachusetts Legislature to authorize the $800 million project, which originally opened in 2004, construction of a hotel south of Summer Street is illegal. Before a shovel goes in the ground, convention authority Executive Director James Rooney will have to convince surrounding neighborhoods to support expansion plans.

“A no-hotel zone exists because we were concerned back then — and still are — about hotel encroachment into the South Boston and Fort Point neighborhoods,” Sen. Jack Hart, a South Boston Democrat who co-authored the original legislation in 1997, told the Boston Herald.

Rooney is organizing a yearlong planning process with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority to involve the community and believes legislators are open to amending the law banning hotel construction.

“I don’t think anyone wants to unilaterally lift the ban, but I think they are willing to hear proposals on a case-by-case basis and, if they are persuaded, then support an amendment,” he said. “We are clearly opening up the conversation.”