Government Center may become green district

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino wants to turn Government Center into the state's first "green" development district to spur public agencies and private companies to lead an environmentally friendly renewal program in the city's downtown.

The effort seeks to create a new redevelopment plan to incorporate clean-energy technologies and sustainable design in a 100-acre area that includes some of the city's most valuable real estate.

Aides to Menino said he will solicit recommendations for the plan from the region's top universities and developers.

"The mayor wants to use Government Center as a model for green, urban growth," said Kairos Shen, chief planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city's planning agency. "This will help unlock the development potential in the middle of downtown."

It will also help reinvent the energy grid in Government Center to end reliance on traditional, less efficient methods of power transmission, said Jim Hunt, the mayor's chief of environmental and energy policy.

Under Menino's proposal, private developers and public agencies will be encouraged to use wind turbines and solar panels, instead of buying electricity.

The technologies could eventually be expanded so that buildings in Government Center would create as much power as they consume, with a surplus to feed back into the city's energy grid.

The plan would also incorporate redevelopment - and possible relocation - of City Hall. Menino has said he wants to build a new City Hall on the South Boston Waterfront.

- Casey Ross