Hyde Park Infill and Small Developments

Hutchison

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I know a lot of people on here scoff at talk about the more residential neighborhoods in Boston, but as there had been some talk about more urban developments in squares outside of downtown I thought people might be interested in this article about the new zoning article adopted for hyde park. It's too bad the nimbys got their hands on this, but at least its a somewhat more urban oriented zoning plan.

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/hyde_park/2012/02/zoning_commission_adopts_new_c.html
 
It would be good to see a bit more height in Cleary Square. The stretch of River St. Between there and Fairmont actually has some very nice urban elements. Hyde Park Ave. Could use a bit more, though.
 
I wonder to what extent completing a re-zoning process juices up development. Since Roslindale completed a similar process, several new buildings have been built or are now under construction, most of them taking advantage of new zoning elements. Here is a rendering for a project underway that involves storefronts on the first floor and townhouses on the second and third. This would have required a variance previously.

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See that is exactly the right kind of scale for these old streetcar suburbs. But the second you bring up rezoning people think you mean to build another Prudential tower.
 
Residences at Fairmont Station

Residences at Fairmont Station:

Southwest Boston Community Development Corp. has proposed a 3 story, 27 unit building on Nott St alongside Fairmont Station


http://www.bulletinnewspapers.com/
 
See that is exactly the right kind of scale for these old streetcar suburbs. But the second you bring up rezoning people think you mean to build another Prudential tower.

Van let's not forget -- most of Paris is 3 and 4 stories with a fairly contiguous streetwall

My ideal ideal for the outlying Boston-proper districts and the old streetcar suburbs would be:

1) leave the single families on the side streets
2) develop the corners with major streets into low muflstory mutlifamily
3) Main shopping streets your 3 story model
4) develop the corners with the Connecting Arterials into midrise 8 to 10 story multipurpose
5) Major Connecting Arterials [4 lanes 2 way or 3 lanes 1 way] -- Major development such as Huntington Ave between Copley and MFA
 
Fairmount Line could get housing development in Hyde Park

BRA officials make a rare visit to Hyde Park tomorrow for a meeting on a proposed 27-unit residential building at the Fairmount train station off Fairmount Avenue.

At the session, which starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 1179 River St., the Southwest Boston Community Development Corp. and the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corp. will explain their proposal for the Residences at Fairmount Station.

This is one of the first "transit oriented" developments proposed for the newly revamped Fairmount Line, the only commuter-rail line with stops just within Boston. State officials have said the $200 million cost of upgrading the line could pay off in revitalization of the areas around its stations.

The two neighborhood development groups have agreements to purchase four dilapidated lots between Nott Street and the station and are seeking BRA approval to replace them with a four-story building holding 24 "affordable" units and 3 "market rate" units.

Besides being located just across from a Fairmount Line station, the project is about a half mile from the new Neponset River bicycle path.

The project would include spaces for 27 cars and 27 bicycles in a first-floor garage. The developers are also looking at trying to entice ZipCar to the location, which would be just the second ZipCar station in the city's southernmost neighborhood.

http://www.universalhub.com/2014/fairmount-line-could-get-housing-development-hyde

And then at the meeting with the BRA Hyde Park residents throw a fit...

Opponents of a 27-unit apartment building on land next to the Fairmount commuter-rail station said the $7-million proposal would lead to poor people infesting the neighborhood with their crime-ridden ways, their children breathing in fumes from the auto-body shop next door and their guests jamming up the local streets with their cars.

http://www.universalhub.com/2014/manager-hyde-park-apartment-proposal-defended

Truly amazing.
 

Never happen. Dedham sends troops to the border every time somebody even mentions putting something on Yard 5. Hell, they send troops to the border every time somebody mentions putting something on the ex-Stop & Shop Warehouse moonscape that isn't even near their nearest residents. The city line splitting the property and any talk of egresses or so much as one blade of landscaped grass or one pebble of asphalt parking reaching across the border has killed umpteen development proposals. Menino spent years of futility trying to force-fit Meninotowers on those parcels, until the remote location and complete anti-cooperation from Dedham had each semi-interested developer washing their hands of it.

Light industrial is a step in the right direction on optimal land-use given the remoteness of Yard 5 from Cleary Sq., but this just looks like a repackaging of the same thing the BRA pitched before with tweaked zoning. The resistance from Dedham is going to be even more violent, and the result likely the same. I don't blame the BRA for trying, but can't imagine they're exactly going at this with gusto given what wasted energy it's 95% likely to be.



Ideally, development in the area ought to unfold like this:

-- The T gets full-tilt BRA and city effort to clear out all the private biz in Widett Circle (already trying with the cold storage warehouse, and Boston Food Market would be a good fit for relocation to Marine Terminal) and give the T 50 years worth of expansion space right at ground zero of southside rail ops and downtown bus ops.

-- The T land-swaps Readville Yard 2 and the adjacent parcel it leases to the recycling yard to the BRA. 2, by its location, is going to fetch them much better resale value than 5's remote location straddling the city line, despite 5's higher total acreage.

-- Commuter rail facility relocates to Widett (which is >2x the size). Fairmount & Stoughton layover moves to Yard (1?), those 4 tracks on the Fairmount mainline a couple hundred feet north of the Fairmount-side station platform that aren't used at all except for CSX reserving one track for its backup moves in/out of the southerly freight yard from the Franklin Line.

-- Yard 2 gets redeveloped as contiguous northward expansion of Cleary Sq. where it's totally integrated with the neighborhood and spurs more redev on that scuzzy stretch of Hyde Park Ave.

-- Yard 5 gets retained by the T as a long-term hold, like today. Because it's zoned RR the pitchfork-wielding Dedham mob can't Operation Chaos transit use like it can redev-with-zoning-change. Technically it IS an active yard, though it's not used for much of anything except staging rail and ties for track construction projects. About the worst Dedham can do is demand a soundwall if it were to see any substantially escalated transit use. Plunk a bus maint yard next to the school bus yard or something to replace Forest Hills bus yard. It's the ideal location to store and service smelly diesel-burning things, and it's larger in total acreage than BET on the northside so whatever needs a cleared-out Widett doesn't serve them for the next 50 years, Yard 5 will serve for the 50 after that. There's no risk of them selling out their future if they dish off Yard 2 and retain 5.
 
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As a Dedham resident, I live very close to the Readville line, close enough that I walk to Readville station every day.

So -- here i go, and I apologize if I sound too NIMBYish.

My complaint about this, is that the entrance to this development is through the Commuter Rail parking lot, and access to the development from 128 is through some very developed, residential neighborhoods. In the 10 months that I have lived there, my biggest complaint are the trash trucks, school busses, big rigs, and other heavy machinery that fly down Sprague Street and through the parking lot. The sidewalks are narrow and by adding more industrial park to the area, you are only going to increase the traffic. Plus the intersection to get out of there is terrible. On top of that, the Boston-Dedham Commerce park is a huge slap in the face to Sprague Street. I can see why residents are afraid of similar developments.

If the project was mixed development and incorporated more access points, then I would be all for this development. The area is a huge waste of space and I often think how cool it would be if somone created "Readville Crossing" and put in a mixed development of residential, commerical, and some light industrial to compliment the history of the area.
 
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As a Dedham resident, I live very close to the Readville line, close enough that I walk to Readville station every day.

So -- here i go, and I apologize if I sound too NIMBYish.

My complaint about this, is that the entrance to this development is through the Commuter Rail parking lot, and access to the development from 128 is through some very developed, residential neighborhoods. In the 10 months that I have lived there, my biggest complaint are the trash trucks, school busses, big rigs, and other heavy machinery that fly down Sprague Street and through the parking lot. The sidewalks are narrow and by adding more industrial park to the area, you are only going to increase the traffic. Plus the intersection to get out of there is terrible. On top of that, the Boston-Dedham Commerce park is a huge slap in the face to Sprague Street. I can see why residents are afraid of similar developments.

If the project was mixed development and incorporated more access points, then I would be all for this development. The area is a huge waste of space and I often think how cool it would be if somone created "Readville Crossing" and put in a mixed development of residential, commerical, and some light industrial to compliment the history of the area.

The truck problem would be a lot better if DCR didn't ban trucks on Neponset Valley Parkway and Brush Hill Rd. All loads coming out of the freight yard are required to go west down W. Milton St. to Dedham Center in order to reach 128, which is so goddamn stupid I can't believe it's been allowed to persist for this long. The driveway down Meadow Rd. feeds right to NV Pkwy., avoids the neighborhood and snarling Cleary Sq. and Hyde Park Ave. to get around, has low volumes, has gentle curves onto 138, and a much easier and better-positioned entry point onto 128. But stupid turf wars inside MassDOT don't allow that, and it's maimed the revenue intake in that area. Stop & Shop got the hell out of town because its access is so constrained, and CSX pulled nearly all its freight loads back to Framingham because of the futility of trying to make better use of Readville.

That's why this is a no-man's land. No two parties are ever on the same page over what to do with it...DOT, DCR, MBTA, state writ-large, BRA, City Hall, Town of Dedham, CSX, developers, industrial tenants, area residents. Do any pick 'em from that grouping and they'll end up pulling in 5 different directions then quickly bailing. It's like affixing their gaze to Readville turns all of their planning and negotiation brains to complete mush.
 
On Boston’s outskirts, hopes for an industrial comeback

The rapid redevelopment of former industrial areas such as the Seaport District has left Boston with less than 5 percent of its land zoned for just industrial uses. Now, at an abandoned rail yard on the outskirts of the city, officials hope a new project will help them lure industry back to Boston.

The “Yard 5” development is a group of low-slung buildings that will be built on former MBTA land in Hyde Park that will offer studio-sized industrial workspaces, each from 4,000 to 7,000 square feet, to as many as 51 businesses. The developers expect to receive the go-ahead from City Hall soon, and already Boston officials are shopping the Yard 5 units to prospective tenants around the country, telling companies that the development shows Boston is serious about restoring its industrial sector.

“We want to bring manufacturing jobs back to the city,” said John Barros, Boston’s chief of economic development. “If we’re not paying attention to those types of jobs, our economic ecosystem is weaker, and we’re not as attractive to these companies and institutions.”

Yard 5 will consist of five one-story light-industrial buildings and a three-story office building. The studios will have robust high-voltage electrical systems, high ceilings, loading docks, and other features prized by industrial businesses.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...al-comeback/zep03g9LH8Nu5qYuiQoofP/story.html
 

Good luck with that. The BRA has tried so many times to get a development going on that property that this same story gets templated about once every 3 years. Every time it's fizzed out because of violent opposition from Dedham abutters or outright lack of developer interest. It's almost impossible to get trucks there, which is why the Stop & Shop warehouse left town with one finger in the air and left its gigantic parcel nearly vacant. DCR has a truck prohibition on Neponset Valley Parkway and every other area parkway cutting off Route 128 access to the east, Dedham has a truck ban on Milton and High streets cutting off all Routes 128/1 access to the west, and there's a 6:00pm-8:00am prohibition on trucks larger than a pickup on Sprague St. That seals off every last industrial escape route except for 9:00-5:00 on Sprague + East St., which is a nonstarter for most industries whose deliveries go before or after their customers' and suppliers' business hours. Plowing all the way up Hyde Park Ave. to downtown/93 without a single parkway available is a total nonstarter on travel time and cost.

That's why all the industry has left that area except for midday pickups at the CSX freight yard. And why they can't ever get that absolute prime space at the ex-S&S property fully rented out. Dedham's got Readville's balls completely in a vice grip because it has complete control over those town-jurisdiction roads, and DCR flat-out doesn't care. Dedham can't be bullied because it's their street grid, not the state's. So unless the BRA can bend DCR on parkway trucks this one is going to the same spit every other proposal on those parcels did.


At least the space the T rented out along the yard loop for that new solar farm installation is collecting a little bit of useful revenue. That's probably the only thing that's ever going to occupy that site unless the T sees renewed transportation use or somebody can successfully shake down DCR where they haven't been able to shake down MDC/DCR since the parkway truck ban first went into effect in '87.
 
According to the BRA's website, Yard 5 was approved on 10/16.

On top of that, I can tell you that trucks do not obey the 9:00am-5:00pm rule. Plus they fly down Sprague St, and completely disobey posted speed limits. Again, I sound like a NIMBY, but this was a bad decision. Hopefully they upgrade access to the site, as the trucks need to drive through a commuter rail parking lot to get there. Either that, or someone is going to get seriously hurt.
 
According to the BRA's website, Yard 5 was approved on 10/16.

On top of that, I can tell you that trucks do not obey the 9:00am-5:00pm rule. Plus they fly down Sprague St, and completely disobey posted speed limits. Again, I sound like a NIMBY, but this was a bad decision. Hopefully they upgrade access to the site, as the trucks need to drive through a commuter rail parking lot to get there. Either that, or someone is going to get seriously hurt.

...or, like the last several times they targeted this and the Stop & Shop warehouse site, flat-out nobody wants to build there because of the FUBAR'ed access situation. The city and developers are going to take a bath on it once they see what tax breaks they're going to have to save face with to sign on any tenants worth having into that area. Or tenants likely to stay in that area instead of being transients that hop immediately to the 'burbs when they grow enough to need better trucking. Readville artificially stopped being a viable light industry site the day the MDC slapped that truck ban on the parkways 27 years ago, and kicked off the chain reaction that forced Dedham's hand. DCR could make the problem go away in an instant, but they didn't listen when S&S was threatening to leave town. And if they didn't listen with S&S, the pittance of revenue this development would produce doesn't approach the threshold of them starting to listen now.
 
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If they rebuild the Milton St/Hyde Park Ave intersection I think they could win a lot of support. It's not very pedestrian friendly yet it's right outside the station.
 
“Former auto-repair place across from Hyde Park train station could become five-story residential building

juniorsbuilding.0.jpg



“A local developer is proposing to raze the recently closed Junior's Automotive at River and Business streets and replace it with a five-story, 32-unit residential building with room for a coffee shop and 19 parking spaces in the ground floor.

The 54-foot-high building would have 20 two-bedroom units and 12 one-bedroom units, as well as a roof deck for residents, according to preliminary plans shown to neighbors at a site meeting last week, and posted in the Hyde Park Neighbors group on Facebook.....”

Link
 

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