BPDA Austin Street Parking Lot Development | Charlestown

I would specifically note that the renders show Rutherford Avenue as it exists today, because any changes to it are very out of scope as far as the developers are concerned - it's not their job to drive the street design. Rather that's the cities job to do something about, and I would note that PLAN Charlestown, which an updated draft was released a couple of weeks ago, specifically calls for the recostruction of Rutherford Avenue as a surface street. Things are moving quite quickly away from a car centric design, as the 2021 Plan (PDF warning) is already at least somewhat obsolete, but with it's significant road diets, improvements to cycling infrastructure and pedestrian experience would still be a significant improvement on existing conditions. In short, by the time this project is built, the streetscape could very well look much different. Especially since it's funded in the current MassDOT CIP - I think we should see shovels in the ground in the next 5 years. In fact, this project could spur more pressure to do better - and is no reason to stall much needed housing and hopefully catalyzing further development.

PLAN: Charlestown | Boston Planning & Development Agency

Active planning initiatives being coordinated by the Boston Planning & Development Agency Community Planning department. Find more information inside each initiative, including details, associated files, and contact information.
www.bostonplans.org www.bostonplans.org
 
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Thanks for providing the context. since people on here have at least in an interest (if not more) in urbanism, it always surprises me how people will comment so thoroughly without knowledge of the expected future condition in the area.
Obviously we need govt to follow through on those aspirations, but that's a different topic.
You can imagine then how off the perspective is of many that attend public meetings. They don't have an interest in planning/urbanism as people on here do AND a lot of times don't know what is planned beyond the development.
 
Stlin said:
I would specifically note that the renders show Rutherford Avenue as it exists today, because any changes to it are very out of scope as far as the developers are concerned - it's not their job to drive the street design. Rather that's the cities job to do something about, and I would note that PLAN Charlestown, which an updated draft was released a couple of weeks ago, specifically calls for the recostruction of Rutherford Avenue as a surface street. Things are moving quite quickly away from a car centric design, as the 2021 Plan (PDF warning) is already at least somewhat obsolete, but with it's significant road diets, improvements to cycling infrastructure and pedestrian experience would still be a significant improvement on existing conditions. In short, by the time this project is built, the streetscape could very well look much different. Especially since it's funded in the current MassDOT CIP - I think we should see shovels in the ground in the next 5 years. In fact, this project could spur more pressure to do better - and is no reason to stall much needed housing and hopefully catalyzing further development.

PLAN: Charlestown | Boston Planning & Development Agency

Active planning initiatives being coordinated by the Boston Planning & Development Agency Community Planning department. Find more information inside each initiative, including details, associated files, and contact information.
www.bostonplans.org www.bostonplans.org
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Yea. The road redesign would help improve the enviornment a lot. My greatest concern is the lack of a concrete timeframe from the City of Boston about when it would happen. Prior to this, the Sullivan/Rt 99 redesign project had like a start construction of either 2021 or 2023, but it has been significantly pushed back with no new revised timeline.

And yes, those development project renders showing current day Rt 99 makes the project look more angst inducing then it probably would be by 2040, if the road redesign is completed by that time.
 
Equilibria said:
There's a meeting on this tonight for the two development teams to present their proposals. BPDA has done something interesting to present them:

Experience

experience.arcgis.com experience.arcgis.com

The two RFPs:

DREAM and Onyx Development: https://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/f4219712-78d0-4efe-b12d-1f1767d759f3

View attachment 42858

Trinity Financial: https://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/172443ff-7adb-46ce-8266-76b0413b5d6f

View attachment 42859
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I like that GIS tool--seems like a great way to start to do more apples to apples comparisons. No pretty pictures to confuse things
 
The Rutherford Avenue Redesign depicts a "road diet" of one lane. And as far as I know, there is no Northern Expressway road diet coming for at least a century, so I think this site is going to remain a traffic island for the foreseeable future.
 
Hmm. 686 units, 60% income restricted, 70-150ft tall, def sounds like a win so far.

fit
 
Seems like a win. I would like to see more density, and that could include more step down and a street wall on Rutherford ave. It does seem slightly Le Corbusier. Which is fine but doesn't really fit historic Charlstown.
 
Hydrobus said:
Seems like a win. I would like to see more density, and that could include more step down and a street wall on Rutherford ave. It does seem slightly Le Corbusier. Which is fine but doesn't really fit historic Charlstown.
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You can't force people to live within 10 feet of a superexpressway like Rutherford.
 
If only they had removed all the underpasses and built an actual city street as had been agreed upon two administrations ago...
 
cden4 said:
If only they had removed all the underpasses and built an actual city street as had been agreed upon two administrations ago...
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Will never happen. Even the “boulevardization” will keep it - and still add lanes!
 
Nice. This seems like a pretty good outcome.
 
This looks really good…although it’s crazy how many units they’re adding to charlestown. Everyone going to be trapped on bottleneck island.
 
Charlie_mta said:
I wonder if the income restricted units will all be on the I-93 side of the buildings?
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Most probably won't be. The rules governing affordable housing prohibit separating them from market rate units and require that they be distributed among other units.
 
617 said:
This looks really good…although it’s crazy how many units they’re adding to charlestown. Everyone going to be trapped on bottleneck island.
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The PLAN: Charlestown comes with half a billion in federal funds to address traffic and infrastructure.
 
What’s the plan? a couple extra buses and a bike lane.
 
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