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Zoning board approves replacement for Charlestown condos destroyed in a fire, but not without opposition

The Zoning Board of Appeals today approved a plan to reconstruct the five-unit 284 Bunker Hill St., which was destroyed in a six-alarm fire last July.

Under the approved plans, the building replacement will grow by about 1,000 square feet, which attorney Michael Ross said was mainly due to the need to expand internal stairways roughly threefold to meet current zoning. Ross added the building would have state-of-the-art alarm and sprinkler systems installed to avoid a repeat of the fire, which one neighbor said took down the old building in just three minutes.

The plans also include six "tandem" parking spaces - basically three longish spaces which can each hold two cars. The zoning board has approved a plan for that in 2011, but the condo association never followed through on it.

Some neighbors, such as Ronald Alex, who owns 286 Bunker Hill St. - which was also damaged in the fire - supported the proposed rebuild - as did the mayor's office. Alex, an architect, said unit owners Peter Levin and Brian Holt, worked with him closely to resolve such issues as his view out toward the harbor and the general look of the building.

But some residents asked the board to withhold approval because of parking and traffic concerns. They said Wall Street, through which residents would access the parking, is a narrow, congested street. City Councilor Sal LaMattina, through a liaison, opposed the parking plan, although he approved the basic idea of rebuilding the condos.

Two residents said they were also concerned about neighborhood crowding and, yes, fire. They said the old building was already too dense for the neighborhood and that the replacement, 1,000 square feet larger, would be even more so, leaving the neighborhood still vulnerable to potential fire issues.

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