Boston city councilors unanimously approved the nation’s first-ever zoning amendment that asks regulators to consider issues such as displacement, gentrification and discrimination when reviewing new development.

District 1 Councilor Lydia Edwards’ fair housing amendment is designed to address a history of segregation in Boston and recent gentrification of working-class neighborhoods including East Boston, where officials recently approved the 10.5 million-square-foot redevelopment of the former Suffolk Downs racetrack property.

“This is going to change right away how we build Boston and how we see Boston,” Edwards said. “We need to acknowledge the past and what the city and planners have and have not done to harm our community.”

The Boston Planning & Development Agency will provide developers with data on displacement and discrimination in neighborhoods where projects are proposed, and the findings will be used to determine if projects are required to include a higher percentage of affordable units than the minimum 13 percent in the city’s existing inclusionary development policy. 

Developers also could be required to include housing units with deeper income affordability guidelines, include more bedrooms to accommodate families and market their properties to a diverse population.

The amendment pushes back against Trump administration policies that sought to minimize the federal government’s role in enforcing the Fair Housing Act, which bans housing discrimination based upon factors such as race, national origin, religion, gender, family status and disability. During the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development adopted a rule called “affirmatively furthering fair housing” which required local jurisdictions to submit plans indicating how they are addressing discrimination through land-use policy.

“We have come a long way and the real test is not the signing or even passage of this amendment but its implementation,” Edwards said in a statement following Wednesday’s council meeting.

Final approval is subject to votes by the BPDA board of directors and Boston zoning commission.

Last fall, Edwards successfully pressed developer HYM Investment Group to exceed the city’s affordable housing requirements at Suffolk Downs, supplementing the minimum of 13 percent affordable units on-site with a payment that will support construction of an additional 500 affordable housing units in East Boston.