Residents willing to consider condos on Walk Hill Street near American Legion in Roslindale - but not five stories' worth

A developer got mixed reviews for his initial proposal for 137 condos in a five-story building on the site of a closed restaurant and the Calisi florist on Walk Hill Street tonight.

On the one hand, residents said at a meeting of the Mount Hope Mount Canterbury Neighborhood Association, they welcome anything that could bring housing that would let young Roslindale residents stay in the neighborhood. On the other hand, they said Charles Gill's proposal was simply too tall and too dense for an area that has nothing comparable, near one of the worst intersections in the city.

Gill emphasized he has yet to file for any city approvals and he and his architect Tom Maistros wanted to meet with residents first so they could come up with something more suited to the neighborhood.

As outlined tonight Gill and his partner would use the almost two-acre site for a development aimed mainly at "workforce" units that could cost $350,000 to $400,000 apiece and come with one parking space in a garage. Most of the units would be one or two bedrooms, with a small number of three-bedroom units. Roughly 15% of the units would be marketed as "afforadable" - aimed at people making up to 80% of the area's median income. Gill said the units would help retain the Millennials he said are increasingly moving to Texas or Florida because they can no longer afford Boston, as well as downsizing empty nesters.

Some residents said they'd rather see more three-bedroom units, because the problem they see is not the flight of single Millennials, but of young people with children. Maistros said that in West Roxbury, people object to three-bedroom units because they don't want more competition for limited seats in the local public schools; residents tonight noted they're in Roslindale, not West Roxbury. Some residents questioned how a $350,000, one-bedroom unit could possibly be considered anywhere near affordable.

Maistros referred to the proposal as "transit-oriented" several times. When one resident asked what transit he was talking about, he and Gill pointed to the Forest Hills Orange Line stop, which they said is within walking distance, and the 14 bus.

Resident Rick Yoder said Forest Hills is exactly a mile away. When Maistros said he used to face a long walk to the Red Line when he lived in Cambridge, residents suggested he try to walk down Walk Hill after a snow or ice storm. And don't get the residents started on the 14 bus, which Yoder said is "a joke, it's like a hobby bus," because it only runs once an hour during the week and not at all on weekends.

Gill continued he sees his proposal as the beginning of an effort to convert what is now largely a commercial strip favored by discount hunters and drag racers into more of a residential neighborhood - maybe one that could eventually attract a coffeehouse instead of the Taoc Bell that proceded him on the meeting's agenda. Gill and Maistros said that the parcel is unique because not only is it zoned for multi-family use, it's buffered from the surrounding single- and two-family homes by cemeteries and the American Legion strip.

But residents said they are worried about the impact on the intersection of Walk Hill and American Legion Highway - especially if another multi-family proposal planned for the old Mattapan State Hospital grounds down Walk Hill ever gets off the ground. Maistros said that as part of the BRA review process, Gill would have a traffic analysis done.

Residents questioned why the proposal calls for only one parking space per unit. Gill said he would be marketing it to "active lifestyle" millennails and empty-nesters not looking for a car-centric life - an idea some residents said they doubted; with a recent immigrant from South Boston saying all the Millennials there results in two or three cars per condo.

Gill added that a key part of the construction would be to clean up and beautify Canterbury Brook, currently a trash-filled creek that runs along American Legion Highway. Imagine, he said, a nice looking brook with plantings and benches along it. The condos entrances and buildings would be focused on Walk Hill, leaving the state-mandated buffer along the brook.

While most residents seemed willing to give Gill another hearing when he comes up with more detailed plans, one woman complained of "the inherent greed" in the proposal, said she found it "really despicable" and said she hopes City Hall doesn't "sell out" the neighborhood just because "we're on the wrong side of Roslindale Village."

Rough idea of what the building could look like, along Walk Hill and Canterbury Street. The large white thing at the top is the Haley School.