Roslindale Infill and Small Developments

[sm89]

59-63 Belgrade Avenue (31 units)

I assume they did the 4th floor in that black and stepped back to make this not look so "large", but because of the grade of the street and this being ground level (no couple steps up to ground floor), it actually looks too short to fit in properly.

 

[SuffolkHeights11]

It is incredible for me how little the 130+ page “Roslindale Square Small Area Plan” actually includes as far as tangible proposals. The entire “Squares and Streets” initiative has been a master class in talking a lot and saying very little.

Just give me a damn before and after map to show the changes. This doesn’t have to be so hard.

To paraphrase a local sports radio host, I could re-zone Roslindale Square on the back of a napkin in an hour. Keep in mind this is only the plan to rezone, not the actual zoning plan. That involves another round of plans, meetings, workshops, and it goes on and on.

 

[FK4]

It is incredible for me how little the 130+ page “Roslindale Square Small Area Plan” actually includes as far as tangible proposals. The entire “Squares and Streets” initiative has been a master class in talking a lot and saying very little.

Just give me a damn before and after map to show the changes. This doesn’t have to be so hard.

Wealthy urban cities have become very adept at this, a big part is graphic design. Compare municipal documents of today to the stuff you find on archive, it’s so snazzy looking but often all fluff.

I think this is all a step in the right direction, but it’s sad to think that probably there won’t be any major revision to this for many more decades. I do think a few more owners on Washington are likely to build up. But the main thrust of the plan is “ hey let’s rezone the MBTA parking lot“ as if the MBTA is ever, in a million years going to develop it.

 

[Randomgear]

Squares and Streets will allow the former "bank of America building" to be sold and rebuilt to multiple stories without zoning relief needed, an absolutely huge selling point. And the current Co-Operative Bank is now proposed to be zoned so that they can expand in-place, without having to buy/rent more satellite parking lots. Lots of opportunities elsewhere as well.
The plan also goes far above just zoning with public space initiatives and proposed traffic pattern changes that restore some pavement back to a more public realm.

 

[HenryAlan]

To paraphrase a local sports radio host, I could re-zone Roslindale Square on the back of a napkin in an hour. Keep in mind this is only the plan to rezone, not the actual zoning plan. That involves another round of plans, meetings, workshops, and it goes on and on.

The convoluted process is all done to placate the NIMBYs who are distinctly not the majority population in Roslindale. That said, as a visioning process, I think it did a pretty good job and also to some extent gave us ammunition against the NIMBY response, which has been fairly muted.