Boston College Master Plan

Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

Perspective: More thoughts on Boston College?s land grab

By Mark Trachtenberg, Political Commentary
Wed Sep 24, 2008, 08:51 AM EDT

Last week, the Allston-Brighton TAB asked all parties concerned to show more civility in the debate over Boston College?s expansion plan. It seems there?s been a lot of yelling and screaming and red-hot accusations at some of the recent neighborhood meetings on the issue, and quite a few people who have been heavily involved in this controversy want to find a way to cool the tempers so that Boston College and its neighbors can find a way to work together.

Well, yelling and screaming are generally not my style ? I greatly prefer crunching numbers and cracking jokes ? so I think I can help. However, I respectfully disagree with at least some of the mostly well-intentioned efforts to broker a compromise that are under way right now, so I don?t expect to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for my work on this issue.

What I?ve always believed about public service is that it?s better to be a good technician than a good politician, and now the time for the Boston Redevelopment Authority to show everybody its technical capabilities, instead of trying to make a political deal by moving forward with the ?less controversial? aspects of the BC plan. My fellow BAIA board of directors member, Abigail Furey, and I had the same reaction to the notion that there are ?less controversial? elements in BC?s expansion plan ? ?like what??

Surely they?re not talking about BC?s attempt to close St. Thomas More Drive so that its professors can save 30 seconds ? or a minute at most ? on their drive to work: a commute that many more of them can make by MBTA and possibly grade papers on the way, which they can?t do behind the wheel of a moving car. Is the proposed baseball stadium ?less controversial?? Only in the sense that former City Council candidate Alex Selvig thinks a deal is worth proposing on it.

Selvig suggests cutting the allowed seating capacity of the proposed BC baseball stadium from 1,500 to 1,000 and allowing it to go forward, primarily as a ?goodwill gesture? on the community?s part, but also in exchange for stopping the construction of new dorms on the land that was purchased from the Archdiocese of Boston. It may come as a great surprise to a lot of people that Alex Selvig the crusader has suddenly turned into Alex Selvig the dealmaker, especially since he has no formal power to make such a deal.

However well intentioned, it?s not a deal that I?d like to offer myself. How do we know that the noise reduction will be enough to allow my Orthodox Jewish friends to continue to observe the Jewish Sabbath? We simply don?t know unless the city of Boston environmental engineers do a lot of careful accoustical testing first ? which, it turns out, they are quite capable of doing.

The way to bring more civility and rationality into the Boston College expansion issue is not to try to impose some political deal that a large portion of the neighborhood will wind up feeling cheated by anyway. The way to bring more civility and rationality into the process is to allow the city of Boston?s technicians, engineers and scientists to test every claim that Boston College is making. If somebody wants me to hold a decibel meter, I?ll volunteer right now.
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Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

I believe they want to put two dorms on the Moore hall land. Closing St. Thomas Moore rd. would connect the campus and the dorms. It would most likely reduce the traffic that an additional 300ish students crossing the street would cause.

The dorms on Newton campus are close to residential housing than the proposed seminary dorms. There are very few complaints from newton residents.

Someone brought this up in the Harvard discussion, but with the current economy in the state it is, as a permanent resident of Boston (and a student of Boston College) i would love to see the amount of money these two institutions are trying to invest go through.
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

"How do we know that the noise reduction will be enough to allow my Orthodox Jewish friends to continue to observe the Jewish Sabbath?"

As a sabbath-observant Jew with many Orthodox friends, did he seriously just write that? That is the worst argument for land use noise reduction I have ever heard in my life, and I've heard some doozies.

I lived next door to a 20,000 seat AAA ballpark with well-attended games for a while. I was never bothered. A 1000-seat stadium on that land won't be any more disruptive than a little league field, except with fewer parking issues since the players all live within walking distance.

Once again, this is insane.
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

Neighbors' group unhappy with BC's revised growth plans

By Andreae Downs
Globe Correspondent / December 14, 2008

Boston College has again amended its initial plans for expansion into the former archdiocesan property off Lake Street, curbing dorm construction there, at least for now, and trimming the number of seats in two stadiums.

But some neighbors still say Boston College is stonewalling.

"We concur with 90 percent of BC's plan," said Alex Selvig, speaking for a group of nearby residents who have organized as Brighton Neighbors United. "It seems they are making an effort to advance the more damaging aspects of the plan first."

In the interests of housing 100 percent of their undergraduates on campus, according to BC spokesman Jack Dunn, the college has proposed building dorms for 790 undergraduates in the next 10 years, starting with ones at More Hall, Shea Field, and a 150-bed structure on the northern side of Commonwealth Avenue. It is also planning to demolish one dorm, Edmunds Hall, which houses more than 700 undergraduates now.

The university has also proposed an immediate plan to control student behavior at 2000 Comm. Ave, a high-rise apartment building near the Chestnut Hill Reservoir that it purchased earlier this year. It is planning to house 560 undergraduates there by 2011.

The Boston College Community Task Force, which is reviewing the plan under the Boston Redevelopment Authority process, has "reluctantly accepted" the high-rise proposal "with a host of caveats, protections, and mitigations," according to Task Force member Kevin Carragee. But the neighbors' group decries this acquisition, which would allow BC to place all but 8 percent of its 9,000 undergraduates in "university controlled housing."

Brighton Neighbors' cochair Ram Rao said that allowing dorm use of the high-rise building, just a short distance from the new campus, would encourage BC to "fill in. They are expanding their campus, rather than putting their undergraduates on campus."

The neighbors' group also vehemently opposes the 150-bed dorm proposed for the former Boston Archdiocese property, which BC calls its "Brighton Campus," arguing that the university promised when it bought the land not to house students there. More housing in Chestnut Hill, the neighbors say, is the way to go.

In that connection, Dunn, the BC spokesman, said building dorms on Shea Field, where the school's baseball team now plays, would mean playing ball on the new site in Brighton. There, BC has cut the seating at the proposed baseball stadium from 1,500 to 1,000, and at a proposed softball field from 500 to 300. That follows an earlier reconfiguration to reduce lighting glare and noise to nearby residents, and a reduction in the size of the athletic center.

Again, the task force has agreed to the fields "with mitigations," Carragee said, to allow the dormitories at Shea Field to be built.

But it's still too much for Rao and his group, with a membership he pegged at "somewhat north of 150."

"They took six months to revise their plan with the city," he said, "and it looks like we got very little in the way of revision."

Dunn said that the reason for the rush to build dorms and get students into 2000 Comm. Ave. is the neighbors' and mayor's desire to remove all undergraduates from the neighborhood, where they have historically been disruptive on quiet family streets.

"Building a 150-bed dorm on 65 acres is necessary to meet that goal," he said.

The university agreed to study the placement of another 350-bed dorm on either the traditional Chestnut Hill campus or the Brighton campus.

Rao said his group thinks this just extends the agony.

"They're just trying to wear us out," he said. "This has been a draining process, over a year long, and it seems that BC just is not hearing what the community wants."

Maps and documents related to the university's plan can be found at www.vhb.com/bostoncollege/imp, and under the Neighborhoods link at the BRA website, www.cityofboston.gov/bra .
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

Letter to Editor re: article kz referenced above from Abigal Furey, who's furious (get it? hehehe).

Seriously, the more I read about this project and talk to people, I want to call them a waaaaaaaaaaaambulance. They won't be happy if students are moved on campus (unless it's a magical campus, far far away from everyone with dorms that are near no one) and they aren't happy that students currently live off campus. ANyway, the best part of this fairly benign letter to the Globe:

BC's desire to convert 2000 Commonwealth Ave. into a 560-bed dorm would place those students in the middle of a residential block of working adults and families, and more than a quarter-mile from campus.
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A whole quarter-mile!?! ZOMG! A city block away from campus!? Wait, what?! NO SHOUTING.
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

As long as BC refuses to reevaluate the use of cheap, low density modular housing over half its core campus, the neighbors do have a point about shifting the housing burden to their neck of the woods.

Though it would make sense if BC were abolishing its absurdly distant freshman campus. What other university isolates its freshmen from the university community by busing them in from a lonely compound in an even more suburban neighborhood?
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

BC is going to replace the modular housing with ~4 story buildings... but the neighbors want a cluster of 8/9 story dorms... and BC doesn't want to kill the open space currently available with smaller housing footprints. No one wins. BC students enjoy the 'feel' of the modular housing with their own yards... BC needs to replace them, but are looking to keep relatively small... and neighbors are asking why they can't be 2-3 times the size...
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

Master Plan to go before BRA
By: Alexi Chi
Posted: 1/26/09
Nearly three years ago, the Boston College Board of Trustees approved a Strategic Plan titled "Excellence, distinction, leadership: Boston College in the 21st Century." A large part of that plan is the $1.6 billion Institutional Master Plan, announced Dec. 5, 2007, which seeks to provide the physical facilities necessary to implement the strategic plan's seven academic goals.

Since its announcement and subsequent presentation before the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), the IMP has undergone several revisions based on public comment as well as input from city councilors, state representatives, the Boston Mayor's office, the Boston Transportation Department, City of Newton Department of Planning and Development, and the BRA.

There have been a number of public hearings before the Allston-Brighton Task Force designed to present the plan and revisions to the community

At the most recent hearing on Jan. 15, Kairos Shen, director of planning at the BRA and chief city planner for the city of Boston, announced that BC's IMP would proceed to a public hearing before the BRA board on Thursday, Jan. 29.

"If the board believes they have heard evidence adequate to vote on the action, they will do so at the hearing, or they can defer action to another hearing," he said. "If there is a positive vote from the board, the BRA will petition a zoning change to the Boston Zoning Commission and then the Boston Zoning Commission will conduct its own hearing, and they may or may not also take a vote."

Several members of the Allston-Brighton community, who have demonstrated their displeasure with BC's IMP through the formation of a group known as Brighton Neighbors United and the placement of "preserve our neighborhood" signs throughout Brighton, have accused BC of ignoring their concerns about the University's proposed expansion.

The vocality of several in the Brighton community, though, has not stopped the plan from going before a public hearing of the BRA on Thursday.

"Staff doesn't recommend things go to the board unless they feel pretty comfortable," said Jessica Shumaker, spokesperson for the BRA. She said that all parties' considerations will hold equal weight in the board's deliberation of the plan and that neighborhood concerns will be considered along with the research of the other agencies involved, the Task Force, and public comments.

If the Master Plan is approved on Thursday, it will go forward to the Boston Zoning Commission for a public hearing and vote. If the plan receives approval here, BC will seek the signature of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. If the plan is not approved by the BRA on Thursday, the Master Plan could be sent back for further review, tabled indefinitely, or rejected completely.

If Menino approves the plan, the design and architecture that comprise it must also be reviewed by the city. "The reality is that once you get it approved, you go through a process called lodge project review," said University Spokesman Jack Dunn. "That process could take a year."

Dunn noted that if the plan is approved, construction on the intramural baseball and softball fields will begin next year.

"We have private money for that. We've been gifted that through a donation. We would also begin the design process of Stokes Common, which is going to be the first building we'll build," Dunn said. "There will be some progress as soon as we hear."



BC seeks to alleviate community concerns through changes to Plan.

Several changes have been made to the Master Plan and were presented to the Task Force on Dec. 3, 2008, to accommodate some of the resident's concerns, as well as the requests made by the BRA in their scoping determination of Feb. 21, 2008.

Included in these changes is the reduction of the number of beds on the Brighton Campus from 500 beds to 150, as requested by the BRA.

"The city has required we build 790 beds before Edmonds comes down. By 2012, 2000 Commonwealth Ave., if approved, will become operational, and that gives us 560 beds," Dunn said. "Four hundred and seventy new beds will be built on the current site of More Hall, 150 beds will be built on the Brighton Campus at the intersection of Commonwealth Ave. and the spine road, which is the new road that will go through the Brighton Campus, and 170 beds will be built on Shea Field."

Dunn noted that although BC originally proposed to build 560 beds in three buildings on Shea Field, the University agreed to build only one building in the first phase.

"This is a major change; it means changing the timeline," Dunn said.

The construction of a 350-bed residence hall on the Brighton Campus has been pulled from the IMP completely. "We'll have to submit it later as an amendment," Dunn said. "We'll do a study and file an amendment. Our preference is that it go on the Brighton Campus," Dunn said of the residence.

In addition to altering the number of beds that will be built on Brighton Campus and Shea Field and the times at which said beds will be constructed, the number of seats in the baseball and softball fields, as well as locations of the home plates, has been changed.

"The neighbors thought 1,500 seats for the baseball fields and 500 for the softball fields were too many, so the task force asked us to reduce the seating capacity," Dunn said. "Baseball is now 1,000 seats, and softball has gone to 300."

Furthermore, an Athletic Advisory Committee will be created in order to allow for community usage of the University's new athletic facilities.



Residence halls on three campuses to create vibrant communities

Several members of the Brighton community have protested BC's hesitance to increase the density of beds on the Chestnut Hill campus rather than build on the Brighton Campus and on Shea Field; the Task Force's original comment letter asked the University to remove completely any proposal for dorms on the property. Dunn said that Lower Campus, which houses 4,700 students on 40 acres, is already too dense. Only 875 students live on the Newton Campus, which is also 40 acres. About 1,000 students reside on Upper Campus.

"We eventually want to house 500 students on the 65-acre Brighton Campus so that we have a mixed use of academic facilities, recreational facilities, and housing on our three campuses," Dunn said. "We would, because look at the Chestnut Hill campus and the Newton campus - they have academic, housing, and athletic facilities, and we think that's the fairest way to distribute students and create three distinct and vibrant communities."

Dunn said he didn't think the distance from the archdiocese property to BC's main campus would be too far of a walk for students residing on either campus.

"There will be 470 students living on the site of More Hall. Across the street, there will be students living on Commonwealth Ave. The students who are living in the neighborhood and in Cleveland Circle will now live on the BC campus and will also live in 2000 Commonwealth Ave., which isn't on the BC campus but close by," Dunn said. "I think students will appreciate having the mixed uses on all three of the campuses."



Construction to commence in three phases

Pending the plan's approval by the mayor, the BRA, and the Boston Zoning Commission, the first phase of construction will result in a net gain of 560 beds between the More Hall site, the Shea Field site, the Brighton campus, the renovated 2000 Commonwealth Ave., and accommodating for the razing at Edmonds Hall, which will result in a loss of 790 beds.

The second phase of construction will result in the addition of 380 beds split between two buildings on the Shea Field site. The third phase will see the demolition of 185 beds in the Mods and the construction of a new dorm. Dunn said that, in the future, BC will propose to replace all the remaining mods. "Eventually, they'll all come down," Dunn said.

Upon the completion of construction, there will be a net gain of 940 beds; BC will then conduct a study to determine the best possible site for the remaining 350 beds, completing the University's plan to house 100 percent of students in University-controlled housing. Presently, 85 percent of students are housed in University-controlled housing units.



Goals of IMP remain unchanged

Though the plan has undergone both protest and praise in the years since its proposal, Dunn said that the University's original goals remain unchanged.

"We're looking to provide these facilities to make a great University better. Our priorities haven't changed, and the University remains committed to the Strategic Plan."



Light the World Campaign on track for completion; plan to provide community jobs

Some, though, have questioned whether the ailing economy will stand in the way of the IMP's eventual completion. Dunn, however, remains optimistic and said that the $1.5 billion Light the World Campaign, BC's 150th Anniversary Capital Campaign, is doing as well as can be expected.

"We've raised $540 million already. We have lots of momentum. Leahy continues to fundraise aggressively, and there's tremendous support because our priorities are priorities that alumni and parents have readily embraced," Dunn said. "Anyone raising money in the world has been affected, but it's a seven-year campaign, and we remain confident we will complete it."

In response to questions regarding the Light the World Campaign and potential delays on the IMP resulting from economic difficulties, Executive Vice President Patrick Keating said he would not have anything specific to share until the Board of Trustees meeting in March.

The IMP, though, is set to provide thousands of jobs in the Brighton community should it be approved. According to an independent assessment by the Hanover Research Council assessing the economic impact of the IMP, 12,232 jobs will be created over the lifetime of the IMP. About 8,000 of those jobs will be union construction jobs.



Brighton community expresses concerns, hesitant acceptance at hearing

In a number of public hearings, held before the Allston-Brighton Task Force and designed to present the plan and subsequent revisions to community members, BC's neighbors have expressed reactions ranging from concern, to fury, to approval of the University's proposed plan. At the Jan. 15 hearing held at the Brighton Marine Health Center, plans for the future of undergraduate housing at BC were the most contentious. Some in attendance, though, reluctantly accepted BC's goal of housing 100 percent of students in University-controlled housing.

"In recent months, I've done a lot of serious thinking ? what our neighborhood has to do to stay attractive to long term residents ? it is in the interest of Brighton to make it possible for Boston College [to construct residence halls on the Brighton campus]. If we have to live next to a college, I want it to be a great college," said Eva Webster, a resident of Cleveland Circle. When the IMP was first announced, Webster was vehemently opposed to the plan.

Sandy Furman, a resident of Lane Park, said, "The most important goal from my perspective is to get students out of the neighborhood and into University-controlled housing. I would reluctantly accept dorms on archdiocese property, and I would reluctantly accept the notion of 2000 Commonwealth Ave. being converted to a dormitory, but Edmonds Hall should not come down until everything else comes up."

Other residents in attendance said that they feared the construction of the baseball and softball fields proposed in the plan would "ruin" their neighborhood.

Some residents also said that they felt that BC has not done enough to assuage neighborhood concerns and that the plan should not yet be taken to the BRA board. "I do not feel we have reached a point where the plan is ready to be taken to the BRA board. Thus I hope it is postponed so that the parties involved may continue to look at alternatives that could bring consensus between BC and the community," Lake Shore Road resident Maria Rodrigues told the Allston-Brighton Tab in an e-mail.



Supporters, dissenters encouraged to attend hearing

Regardless of resident opinion, though, the IMP will go before the BRA board for public hearing on Jan. 29. Shen justified the move: "We think there was attempt to remove elements of the plan that had little to no support," he said.

Dunn encouraged students to attend the meeting in support of the IMP.

"It's a public hearing. Anyone can go. Anyone can speak, and they hear all voices," Dunn said. "We would encourage members of the BC community, students, faculty, and staff to support the plan." Dunn noted that four new academic buildings, a new recreation complex, a fine arts district, a new student center, new baseball and softball fields, and new housing that will enable BC to meet 100 percent of undergraduate demand in University controlled housing are at stake.

"There's no fluff here. Everything we're doing are things that we need, [that] are vital to the future of BC," he said. "The BRA has a board of directors, and it is they who will vote after listening to comments from residents, for and against. It's clearly in our interest if members of the community will go and speak on the plan."



Patrick Gallagher and Matthew DeLuca contributed to this report.
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Boston College plans head to Boston Redevelopment Authority despite neighbors? protests
By Jonathan Seitz, Correspondent
Thu Jan 22, 2009, 07:48 AM EST

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Allston-Brighton - Brighton residents accused Boston College of ignoring their concerns about the university?s proposed expansion at the final meeting of the BC Task Force.

The Jan. 15 meeting was the last scheduled gathering of the task force before the university?s 10-year Institutional Master Plan is scheduled to go before a public hearing of the Boston Redevelopment Authority on Jan. 29. Since specific details of the plan had been presented at previous meetings, Thursday?s meeting was confined to public comments about the revisions to the task force, with no time for BC to respond to the comments.

John Fitzgerald, the project manager for the BRA assigned to the BC plan, said the plan had been under debate for almost two years, and that ?it is the BRA?s intention to move forward with the process? and go to the board to debate the issue.

The IMP has been a matter of heavy debate in the Brighton community even before its official submission to the BRA on June 20, 2008. Subsequent revisions to the plan, which were presented to the task force on Dec. 3, 2008, addressed some of the residents? concerns, but many of those in opposition were not pleased with BC?s response.

?It is evident that no significant revision was made,? said Lake Shore Road resident Maria Rodrigues in an e-mail after the meeting. ?BC, the task force and the BRA knew that. So the best strategy was to hold a public meeting where the public makes comments and asks questions, but BC does not need to embarrass itself by acknowledging that, in fact, the plan remains as injurious to the neighborhood as it has always been.?

Rodrigues was one of many members of Brighton Neighbors United, a community group whose yellow ?preserve our neighborhood? signs have been posted all over Brighton, who attended the meeting and distributed their own analysis of the revisions to the attendees of the meeting.

?BNU believes that solutions acceptable to all parties are achievable, provided that Boston College demonstrates a serious commitment to address the community?s concerns in an open and transparent process and works towards gaining the community?s trust,? reads part of the Executive Summary of the BNU analysis.

The key issues for the community which were discussed at the meeting were concerns about on-campus housing on the Brighton campus; the development of an athletic complex, including 1,000-seat baseball and 500-seat softball stadiums on the Brighton Campus; and changes to the parking and traffic layout of the campus.
Undergraduate housing

Of those three issues, the university?s plans for housing were the most contentious. Along with resident groups, including BNU and the Aberdeen-Brighton Residents Association, elected officials from Mayor Tom Menino to District 9 City Councilor Mark Ciommo have called for BC to house 100 percent of its undergraduates on-campus as soon as possible.

?We believe that housing 100 percent of Boston College?s undergraduate population in university-controlled housing is the most important goal moving forward with the IMP process,? reads a comment letter sent to the BRA, signed by Ciommo and state reps Kevin Honan and Mike Moran.

There has been some division over where those students can be housed on BC?s campus. BNU has been adamant that no students be housed on the former archdiocese property in Brighton, and the task force?s original comment letter asked BC to remove proposals for dorms on the property.

?When BC purchased the former archdiocese site, they promised not to use it for dormitories,? reads the BNU analysis distributed at the meeting. BNU proposes that higher-density buildings, similar to the recently purchased 2000 Commonwealth Ave. dormitory, could be built on the Chestnut Hill campus.

The ABRA has been primarily concerned with avoiding an influx of BC students to the Cleveland Circle neighborhood, and is willing to allow dormitories on the Brighton location, according to group President Eva Webster.

Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn said in an e-mail interview that the university will ?remain committed to reaching our goal of meeting 100 percent of undergraduate demand in this IMP,? and that they agreed to re-examine the location of a 350-bed dorm on the Brighton campus, but would seek to keep a 150-bed dorm on the site, which would be reserved for junior and senior undergraduates.
Athletic fields

The baseball field on the Brighton campus, which was scaled down from 1,500 seats in the original proposal to 1,000 in the revisions, has drawn heavy concern from residents over light and noise pollution, both from baseball games and from student use for intramurals.

?We are talking about a stadium in the middle of a residential neighborhood that will ruin the neighborhood,? Lake Street resident Brenda Pizzo said at the meeting.

BC will create an Athletics Advisory Committee, consisting of ?members from the city, the task force and BC? to handle community concerns about the baseball facility, Dunn said.

While many of the attendees spoke in opposition to the project, there were a number of people in the crowd wearing ?I Support BC? buttons, though relatively few voiced their support of the project at the meeting. The majority of community support came from organized labor representatives who were in attendance, and spoke in favor of the BC project as an excellent source of jobs and income for the community.

Dunn said that the university?s expansion plans will ?provide 8,000 union jobs and 4,000 spinoff jobs? for people in the community. However, Rodrigues questioned the motives of those present at the meeting who pledged support for BC.

?Even the supporters that did stand up to speak, clearly did not address the meeting?s agenda, which were the REVISIONS,? Rodrigues wrote. ?All they said is that they supported BC, like if we were talking about a football team.?
Future of the BC project

At the end of the meeting, BRA Director of Planning Kairos Shen took questions from the audience and explained the future of the project. He said that the BRA is in a listening mode, and that ?tonight was an opportunity for us to hear more comments.?

However, many residents were not pleased with the BRA?s response, and said that there should be more public discussion before the project moves forward.

?I do not feel we have reached a point where the plan is ready to be taken to the BRA board,? wrote Rodrigues. ?Thus I hope it is postponed so that the parties involved may continue to look at alternatives that could bring consensus between BC and the community.?
Still time to comment

Shen said that any residents who still had concerns about the project could continue to submit comments to the BRA, and that there will be an opportunity for public comments at the BRA board meeting, scheduled for Thursday Jan. 29, at 2 p.m.
BRA could vote as soon as Jan. 29

At that meeting, the BRA board will decide whether or not to vote on the proposal as it stands. If they feel that they can vote on it at the meeting, a vote will be taken. Otherwise, the project will be sent back to the review process, Shen said.

Even if the BRA board does vote on and approve the project, the project will also have to undergo review by the Boston Zoning Commission, which will also hold a public meeting to determine whether or not to allow for the requested variances. Public comment will also be allowed at that meeting.
Residents who still have concerns about Boston College?s expansion plans can continue to submit comments to the BRA. Comments can be emailed to project manager John Fitzgerald at John.Fitzgerald.bra@cityofboston.gov or mailed to him at John M. Fitzgerald, Project Manager, Boston Redevelopment Authority, One City Hall Square, Boston, MA 02201.
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The meeting is tomorrow.
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

BC Busing Students to Pack the Audience at BRA Board Meeting
Boston College's 10-year Institutional Master Plan goes to the Boston Redevelopment Authority's Board Thursday afternoon for a public hearing and likely vote.

Word out of the Chestnut Hill campus is that BC officials are trying to pack the room with students, going so far as providing a bus direct from campus to City Hall.

Alumni have been emailed in a last-minute attempt to deluge City Hall with support. And BC employees who live in Brighton have been contacted directly to ask them to attend and speak at the hearing.

More: http://brighton-community.blogspot.com/2009/01/bc-busing-students-to-pack-audience-at.html
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

So when is aB going to pay for my flight to the next BRA meeting? Van? Briv?
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

I am going in my full BC gear. It's not even the brighton community against this, it's Lake Street. If you have ever driven or walked Lake Street you know its that one that has all the houses that haven't been painted in 20 years and with overgrown shrubs and dead plants, and shield from most of the Brighton Campus area with 150 feet of literal forest between it and the archdiocese buildings.

BC needs to upgrade if it wants to maintain the status it currently has. Many of its housing, dining, recreational, and athletic facilities are just old and falling apart. The "mods", the on campus apartments houses were built as temporary housing in the 1970s! and do not hold heat at all (I am writing in a sweatshirt).


I truly feel bad for the Lake Street residents who believed they were moving into a nice suburban neighborhood, when out of nowhere in 1913 BC comes in and has 7 football games a year. They also have to put up with that annoying public transportation that was just dropped near their peaceful suburbian utopia. (sarcasm alert)
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

I am going to try and make it out there myself. I really hope everything passes so BC can begin designing the actual buildings.
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

The "mods", the on campus apartments houses were built as temporary housing in the 1970s! and do not hold heat at all (I am writing in a sweatshirt).
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I thought part of the reason for the expansion was that the mods were too popular to be entirely removed?

I'm all for pushing back against NIMBYs, but I'm kinda disturbed by the idea of a BC mob intimidating at a meeting like this. I guess it's what the system hath wrought, though.
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

Ok, what did you guys do?

In about-face, Brighton task force now backs new BC dorm
January 29, 2009 01:22 PM
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

In an abrupt turnaround that angered Brighton residents, the community task force reviewing Boston College's $1 billion expansion plan is recommending that city officials allow the university to build a 150-student dormitory on the former Archdiocese of Boston property.

At the same time, the group called for city planners to reject the college's plans for an additional 350-student dorm on the land, which the college calls its Brighton campus, and called for the college to house those students on its main Chestnut Hill campus.

The advisory group will present its recommendations to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city's planning agency, at a meeting this afternoon at City Hall that could bring a vote on the college's 10-year expansin plan.

The group, which agreed to back the dormitory in an 8-5 vote, described its support for the smaller dorm as a difficult concession but one that would reduce the number of students living in off-campus apartments. Neighbors complain that these students are rowdy and distruptive, and have long urged the college to build more dormitories.

But most strongly oppose placing them so near their homes on the quiet Brighton property, saying they are essentially extending the campus into the neighborhood.

"The task force recognizes that this reverses our long-standing position on housing students on the so-called Brighton campus; we also recognize widespread community opposition to this proposal," said the letter, sent Wednesday evening. "In making this most difficult concession, the task force believes that the College should act decisively to forge common ground with the community by accepting an affirmative obligation to house 350 more students on its traditional campus."

Today, neighbors said they were furious over the reversal and criticized the task force for ignoring their views. They also said they were angry that the task force had agreed to support the dormitory outside of public view.

"We're absolutely outraged," said Alex Selvig, a Lake Street resident. "A community task force is supposed to represent the views of the community, and this does not do this. Nearly all of the neighborhood is dead-set against a dorm there."

Selvig said the Brighton dormitory represented a "camel's nose in the tent" toward building additional dormitories on the property.

BC spokesman Jack Dunn said today that the task force's letter reflected a growing concensus that providing housing for all undergraduates was of paramount importance.

"People have clearly said we need 100 percent'' of students in university housing, Dunn said. "That has helped the task force realize that this is the best possible plan for the college and the community.''

In September, the task force voiced strong opposition to the Brighton dormitories, and asked city officials to deny the college a permit to convert a high-rise apartment complex near its campus on Commonwealth Avenue into a 560-student dormitory unless it accepted the conditions.

College officials have maintained that the main campus is too dense for more student housing, and that building dormitories in Brighton is necessary to reach their goal of providing campus housing for all undergraduates who seek it. They also view the expansion as critical to its future and its goal of become one of the nation's most elite colleges.

The task force said both sides would be "poorly served by a protracted conflict that produces a stalemate, which leaves 1,200 Boston College students living in our residential housing stock."

It urged the city to prevent Boston College from further expansion over the next decade, and to ban alcohol from the Brighton dorm.

Mayor Thomas Menino has said he squarely opposes plans for the Brighton and off-campus dormitories, and urged the college to make room for students on its main campus. The college now houses about 85 percent of undergraduates on campus.

story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/01/in_aboutfacet_b.html
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Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

So basically the neighborhood wants BC to either:

1. Disband.

2. Build high-rise dorms at Chestnut Hill.

Cool...
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

I was at the BRA meeting today. I do not know how it finished up because I had to leave before a vote. Both sides came out with high numbers. There was a handful of BC students, but most of the supporters were Brighton residents, several were Lake Street residence at that.

The proposed changes I believe are good, 150 beds on Brighton are not much. And they are literally just across the road from new dorms on lower and about a hundred feet removed from Lake Street (which begins with a store and T yard and then has a big forest barrier) The entire plan works nicely for BC and the neighborhood. The fields on brighton seem to be a big issue, but these will be the least used and not heavily frequented by students on the day to day level (obviously game day will be different).

You really know a democracy is working when all sides walk away a little unhappy, and I think that is what we have here. I hope the board approved it.

Anyone else there and stay for the duration, what happened??
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

BC's expansion plan gets OK despite neighbors' opposition
Zoning board allows it, 9-1

By Matt Byrne
Globe Correspondent / May 7, 2009

The Boston Zoning Commission voted last night to approve a controversial Boston College expansion plan after a marathon, 5 1/2-hour meeting.

More than 200 people packed the public hearing to argue the merits of BC's sweeping, $1 billion construction master plan, which was passed by a 9-to-1 vote.

Public discussion, at some points heated, lasted for more than four hours, with Zoning Commissioner chairman Robert Fondren gaveling the room back to order numerous times.

The college proposes to build new baseball and softball stadiums on open space that used to belong to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

Also included is a proposal to house students in university-controlled dormitories.

Residents vehemently opposed the construction of the 1,000-seat baseball stadium, which they said would generate excessive noise, light, and generally disturb the neighborhood. Some also contended that the university would build the stadium first and delay construction of the dorms.

A group of Brighton neighbors, along with an environmental group, had raised concerns about the impact of the construction on aqueducts beneath the campus that carry the water supply for Boston and many surrounding communities.

In the brief business meeting that followed, the commission recommended that language be added to the master plan that requires the college to commence building a residential dormitory concurrently with construction of the playing fields on the Brighton campus.

Placing students in on-campus housing has long been a priority of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, whose office sent a representative to voice support for the proposal.

Members of Brighton Neighbors United, a group that focuses on preserving green space and limiting institutional expansion, came out in force and vocally opposed BC's plans, arguing that the university had steam-rolled its proposal through the process.

Also in attendance were Councilors at Large Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty, who both came out to oppose the master plan, in addition to a handful of other elected officials.

"My opposition has something to do with the process," Yoon said, adding that he believed that the community-involvement procedure was flawed and ignored hundreds of stakeholders.

One resident, Jay Allen, whose house is close to the proposed ball field, said the size of the field "just didn't fit."

"Just because you can get the top button buttoned, it doesn't mean you should wear the pants," Allen said.

Link
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

I hope the approval included some provision to safeguard the aqueducts against construction accidents.
 
Re: Boston College Master Plan debut

Globe said:
Also in attendance were Councilors at Large Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty, who both came out to oppose the master plan, in addition to a handful of other elected officials.
Click to expand...

Both of which just lost my vote. That leaves me no one to vote for.

However, I go to BC.
 
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