990 American Legion Highway | Hyde Park

Equilibria said:
Is this the worst development in the Boston Area right now, just kind of on the full assessment?


Also, calling BS on this:

View attachment 66302
You a$$Holes would have taken it out no matter what happened. You never intended to build any of these things.

Also, it begs the question: if it's now only "marginally" profitable, how many more delays would make it "unprofitable", and how can the neighbors cause those?
Click to expand...
This is 100% true. The BPDA behaved so egregiously, negotiating in bad faith that they were open to all sorts of lawsuits. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes for the City of Boston.
 
Still, Noone and another Willow Bridge official said the project will have community benefits: It will mean more taxes for the city than a vacant piece of land would generate, it will provide housing and 58% of the land will be open space.

When one resident countered that open space, including a playground and dog run, will not be open to the public, so that's not a community benefit, Willow Bridge countered that the new residents of the complex will be members of the Hyde Park community, therefore, that's a community benefit.
Click to expand...

Heh. That was funny though.
 
The solution here is so obvious. The City should add an “open space residential development” district to its zoning code and map that district over crane ledge. Allow sufficient density as of right that it will be worth the developer’s while to wait. Double or triple the as of right unit count and allow an urban building form along the American Legion frontage, with no minimum parking requirement, and ~10 acres of crane ledge preserved as open space and maintained by the City.

It’s hard to blame the (admittedly unlikable) developer for designing a project that meets the zoning reqs. It’s the zoning that is shaping a terrible project. It’s not too late to fix it.
 

Under a judge's order, a depressed planning board reluctantly approves a Hyde Park apartment complex members hate​

1758305516054.jpeg


“Saying it had no choice, the Boston Planning Department board, with extreme reluctance, tonight approved plans by a Texas developer for a nine-building apartment complex on the Hyde Park/Roslindale line that has no affordable units or community benefits and which will involve blasting away much of a hillside and ridge and cutting down large numbers of trees.

The three board members who voted to approve the 14-acre project on land now owned by the Jubilee Christian Church of Mattapan on Crane Ledge off American Legion Highway first made it clear they were doing so not because they liked the project but because a Land Court judge basically ruled in April that they had to do so because the project complies with the land's zoning - a rarity for such a large project.”

 
stick n move said:

Under a judge's order, a depressed planning board reluctantly approves a Hyde Park apartment complex members hate​

View attachment 67008

“Saying it had no choice, the Boston Planning Department board, with extreme reluctance, tonight approved plans by a Texas developer for a nine-building apartment complex on the Hyde Park/Roslindale line that has no affordable units or community benefits and which will involve blasting away much of a hillside and ridge and cutting down large numbers of trees.

The three board members who voted to approve the 14-acre project on land now owned by the Jubilee Christian Church of Mattapan on Crane Ledge off American Legion Highway first made it clear they were doing so not because they liked the project but because a Land Court judge basically ruled in April that they had to do so because the project complies with the land's zoning - a rarity for such a large project.”

Click to expand...
Meanwhile, the City mysteriously canceled its scheduled unveiling of the desperstely needed Squares and Streets zoning for nearby Cleary Sq FIVE months ago and has been silent ever since. This project is god awful (aside from the obvious benefit of more housing), but they’re paying the price for their own inaction. S&S wouldn't have applied here but they had years to fix the zoning here too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top