Image courtesy of Kohn Pederson Fox Assoc.

Acting Mayor Kim Janey is scheduled to weigh in today on the controversial rezoning of Boston’s downtown waterfront that holds the key to the fate of two major development projects.

Environmental groups have urged Janey to withdraw a zoning plan, currently under state review, that would allow a 600-foot office-residential tower on the Harbor Garage site and a 357-room, 275,000-square-foot hotel and restaurant on the James Hook & Co. lobster pound property.

Janey has scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference to discuss the issue. According to a Boston Business Journal report, Janey is considering withdrawing the city’s support of its own municipal harbor plan rezoning 42 acres of waterfront. The document was crafted during a four-year period and more than 40 meetings of an advisory committee.

The Boston Planning & Development Agency is reviewing two active proposals in the affected area: The Chiofaro Co.’s 900,000-square-foot Pinnacle skyscraper, and Moriarty Partners’ 357-room, 275,000-square-foot hotel and restaurant on the Hook lobster parcel.

But the projects hit a roadblock in May when Suffolk Superior Court Justice Brian Davis threw out the state’s approval of the municipal harbor plan, ruling that it should have been approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection instead of the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, a plaintiff along with trustees of the Harbor Towers II condo trust, criticized the city’s process as giving “private developers a free pass to create new rules to benefit themselves.”

That setback prompted the DEP to start recertifying the municipal harbor plans to correct the procedural error. But in the meantime, the zoning process has become an issue in the mayoral race.

At a DEP-sponsored hearing in July, Boston mayoral candidates and city councilors Andrea Campbell and Annissa Essaibi George criticized the rezoning process. Two other candidates in the Sept. 14 preliminary election, City Councilor Michelle Wu and former Boston economic development chief John Barros, also have stated opposition to a tower on the garage site.

Janey also has expressed strong reservations about the Pinnacle project. In a May statement to the Boston Globe, Janey said the proposed project is too tall and dense and “does too little to advance our shared objectives of increasing our waterfront’s resiliency, accessibility and vibrancy.”

Meanwhile, a newly-formed alliance of 40 advocacy groups is seeking to influence the next mayor’s approach to waterfront development. The Coalition for a Resilient and Inclusive Waterfront seeks to expand public access to Boston Harbor and develop a clear set of standards for community benefits and coastal resiliency funding.