Chestnut Hill Infill and Small Developments

[ball_square]

Absolutely. 100% agree.

But this massive development, with those new 12-14 story buildings, would most certainly result in additional car/truck congestion in this bottleneck. Simply wishing that that amount of additional development won't further choke it isn't reality. Creative solutions (underpasses?, pedestrian bridges? relocating the Chestnut Hill Green Line station?, elevated monorail down Rte 9? etc.) would need to be employed. It's already a traffic chokepoint, adding this new massive development would be like throwing gasoline on a fire, without transpo changes. Given the obvious effects of this development, I'm all ears to hear the solutions.

Develop it all with 0 new parking spots. Ditch the median, add cycletracks, improve ped crossings. It's all a 10 minute walk from the Green Line. There's a grocery store and restaurants already--develop everything with ground floor retail and there'd be even more to do within walking distance. No billion dollar transit expansion project needed.

 

[shmessy]

Develop it all with 0 new parking spots. Ditch the median, add cycletracks, improve ped crossings. It's all a 10 minute walk from the Green Line. There's a grocery store and restaurants already--develop everything with ground floor retail and there'd be even more to do within walking distance. No billion dollar transit expansion project needed.

Ditch the useless median - definitely. But the trucks for supplies/maintenance etc will still be a huge add to the traffic there. This isn’t one medium sized building - this is a massive multi-building project at a current choke point. Anyone who thinks more than 20% of the folks in that new development will make that “10 minute walk” across Rte 9 and through several blocks on the other side to a hard to find Chestnut Hill stop is whistling a wishful tune. It ain’t gonna happen. Now if they located the head house to both sides of the corner of Rte 9 and Hammond with an underground peoplemover, then maybe you’d get a much larger percentage using that stop. But as is? Nope, no way more than 20% would use that.

 

[ball_square]

Ditch the useless median - definitely. But the trucks for supplies/maintenance etc will still be a huge add to the traffic there. This isn’t one medium sized building - this is a massive multi-building project at a current choke point. Anyone who thinks more than 20% of the folks in that new development will make that “10 minute walk” across Rte 9 and through several blocks on the other side to a hard to find Chestnut Hill stop is whistling a wishful tune. It ain’t gonna happen. Now if they located the head house to both sides of the corner of Rte 9 and Hammond with an underground peoplemover, then maybe you’d get a much larger percentage using that stop. But as is? Nope, no way more than 20% would use that.

How do you think people without cars live? Usually, they walk 10+ minutes to transit.. mostly bus stops which are less frequent and "harder to find" than this. The renter's market is so brutal right now that, yes, people will readily accept these conditions for an apartment they can afford.

Sure, if you build the developments with 1+ parking space per unit, then 20% or fewer will use the T. But that's not what I'm suggesting.

Lastly, yes--crossing Rt 9 on foot now sucks. That's the low-hanging fruit that I hope Brookline would be able to justify fixing if TOD began in the area.

 

[shmessy]

How do you think people without cars live? Usually, they walk 10+ minutes to transit.. mostly bus stops which are less frequent and "harder to find" than this. The renter's market is so brutal right now that, yes, people will readily accept these conditions for an apartment they can afford.

Sure, if you build the developments with 1+ parking space per unit, then 20% or fewer will use the T. But that's not what I'm suggesting.

Lastly, yes--crossing Rt 9 on foot now sucks. That's the low-hanging fruit that I hope Brookline would be able to justify fixing if TOD began in the area.

No argument - - there would need to be a lot of pedestrian, bike and bus infrastructure changes.

I am NOT advocating for more parking. The traffic from 1+ space per unit would choke the area. I'm not sold on this particular location being a great idea for this massive new development WITHOUT massive investment in the pedstrian, bike and bus infrastructure.
Building this development with 1+ parking space per unit = disaster
Building this development with no parking and without massive investment in pedestrian, bike and bus infrastructure = disaster
Building this development and doing nothing else but crossing fingers = disaster

 

[ball_square]

Building this development with no parking and without massive investment in pedestrian, bike and bus infrastructure = disaster

I just don't agree. I think this attitude is the enemy of progress. Yeah, I think it would kinda suck for the new residents, and the rental asking price would be appropriately lowered. But it's better than not having somewhere to live, and it's better than leaving this corridor as-is.

 

[Charlie_mta]

No argument - - there would need to be a lot of pedestrian, bike and bus infrastructure changes.

I am NOT advocating for more parking. The traffic from 1+ space per unit would choke the area. I'm not sold on this particular location being a great idea for this massive new development WITHOUT massive investment in the pedstrian, bike and bus infrastructure.
Building this development with 1+ parking space per unit = disaster
Building this development with no parking and without massive investment in pedestrian, bike and bus infrastructure = disaster
Building this development and doing nothing else but crossing fingers = disaster

It's only a 0.3 mile walk from Route 9 along Hammond Street to the GL Chestnut Hill station inbound platform (see Google map below). Hammond Street is very walkable with sidewalks on both sides. The only hard part is walking across Rte 9, which does of course have a signalized pedestrian crossing. So, this project is reasonably close to rail transit, and as such is suitably located for high density development.