Parking main focus of meeting on proposed Roslindale Square condo project

Immediate neighbors of a 19-unit, two-building condo proposal for land behind the Roslindale Square municipal parking lot raised issues of setback, privacy and loss of sun at a BRA meeting at the Roslindale Community Center tonight. Once the developer and his architect agreed to work on those, the talk turned, as it usually does, to parking - and the issue of increasing the housing stock in a neighborhood that has been largely been unaffected by the building boom hitting other parts of the city.

Some residents of Taft Hill Terrace, on which the proposed project would sit, said the 19 proposed spaces just were not enough and predicted that some residents of the new buildings would end up trying to park on their street, which they said already has parking issues, in part due to its proximity to the commuter-rail parking lot, where spaces go for $4 a day, and the municipal lot, where parking is limited to two hours a day.

"I live on Taft Hill Terrace and it's not working," one resident said of the current parking situation.

Beyond the immediate neighborhood, though, residents agreed the project, when coupled with other recent apartment and condo buildings in and near Roslindale Square, is the vanguard of more development - but differed on whether that's good or not. Some residents worried about parking and overcrowding; others said first-time homeowners just aren't buying as many cars as their parents, that Roslindale needs more units to bring in new residents and keep existing ones from being priced out of the neighborhood and that Roslindale Square in particular needs more residents who would walk to local shops, many of which don't see enough foot traffic to sustain themselves.

One of those was Sarah Lee, who said that people in their 20s and 30s are increasingly more likely to have just one car, in part because cars are just too expensive for them, what with housing prices, student loans and the costs of raising kids. She said she supported the proposal because Roslindale needs more people who would rather take the train, ride a bike or use ZipCar or Uber to get around.

The Taft Hill proposal calls for spaces for 19 bicycles and developer Parkhead Development has pledged $2,000 car-sharing or ride-sharing credits to initial buyers.

But Timothy Sheehan said the new residents are going to bring their cars no matter what and they're going to park on the street if they have to, and that could have dire consequences if replicated across Roslindale, a neighborhood known as a suburb in the city, where ample on-street parking is a major draw, because the neighborhood would become just like South Boston, with "competitive street parking" and "people taking a hammer to your car because you're in their spot." He said thinking people will stick to to just one car per household is "a utopian dream" that will fail because you can't "reverse the laws of human nature."

Residents with comments have 30 days to file comments with the BRA. If the BRA board approves the $4-million proposal, it will need variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals for height, setback and overall size of the buildings when compared to the size of the lot.