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State looks to use two acres of Shattuck Hospital grounds for affordable housing

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports on a meeting between state officials and residents about the future of Shattuck Hospital's grounds in Franklin Park as the hospital is shut and moved to the South End. A state agency wants to use two acres of the land for affordable housing.

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Comments

I hope they build high rises. Why did they just tear down one of the buildings that they could have made into housing? Haunted?

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Because one of the actually attractive things about Boston compared to certain other cities is the absence of the blight that is high-rise public housing.

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The structures being demolished were deemed not-usable and had structural concerns. That is why they were not rebuilt in the first place.

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Sadly, the plan appears to be for low rises and ~100 units. I believe the building in question was torn down because it would have been more expensive to rehab it than to replace it, although that is probably with "state government" type thinking where the assumption is that maintaining a similar level of density (rather than maximizing density) is the best approach (which of course no private developer would ever do).

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Please, less 'Affordable' housing and more market rate middle class housing.

Many of us forced out of the city would like to return some day. More market rate housing helps make that happen, more Affordable housing is just a lottery with potentially upward pressures on pricing.

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That ship has sailed. 1 bedroom condos in JP are selling for $500K. That is not middle class housing. Affordable housing is needed as it least it gives people a shot.

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That ship has sailed is not really an applicable descriptor for the housing market.

It will take time, and it will take a willingness to build on the part of the city (AKA get out of the way) but in time building can have an impact on the overall market.

Building more lottery housing is of course a sign that this need is not taken very seriously.

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I agree that we need more market rate housing. JP is getting quite a bit of it built these days and the prices are only going up. What I don't agree with is that we need less affordable housing, which is what you said. We need both.

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Affordable as the state describes it vs actual affordable?

Should we keep building Affordable (TM) housing? Yes, but it should be a smaller portion of the overall construction rate.

Affordable (TM) housing, drives up housing costs and reduces availability for the rest of us.

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I think in this particular case (where the state already owns the land and is already using it as a facility for the homeless) it would make sense to do both: Lease the land out to build market rate housing, and then use the rent from that lease to fund the creation of more facilities for the homeless on the same site. This is a huge parcel. There's room to do way more with it than the state is currently envisioning. Using it for 3 buildings and a bunch of parking lots is a terrible waste of space.

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and, affordable housing would basically be making a donation from the landowner (the state) to the lottery winners.

If the state built market rate housing, then they would get top dollar for the land, and be able to spread the wealth to all taxpayers. Assuming there are multiple developers bidding on the project.

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Public or Supportive housing on land like this, already owned by the state or the city, and loosening zoning/parking regs on the rest of the city so private development can do its thing?

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Why housing? Whatever happens here should be an asset to the entire city - the land previously belonged to the park and I'm for giving it back to the park. It could be developed into buildings or a complex of some kind as part of an FP masterplan, but it should be for community use, not just some random housing complex.

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Affordable housing *is* an asset to the city. It helps keep communities and families stable. It allows people to live in the city in which they work. You can (and should) include green spaces with new development, but housing is a serious issue here. Homelessness, especially family homelessness, is on the rise. The community needs places to live. So perhaps they could build parkland and housing and then everybody wins.

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I would like to see the land returned to the park too but I would go even further. I would like to see the park returned to Olmsted's vision as much as possible. Imagine for a moment a Franklin Park without the hospital, golf course and the zoo, then the original structures are rebuilt and the landscapes restored. I believe it would be glorious, expensive as hell, but by far the nicest large park in the city. Call me crazy

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As much as I like the idea of a pure Olmsted vision, what’s done will not be undone and besides—what’s there now is pretty great.

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People enjoy the zoo and the golf course and the sports fields - people who live in the city. There's thousands of acres of woods a few miles south in the Blue Hills for those who want less amenities.

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Glorious? You must be seeing something I'm missing. You can see land like this all over Eastern Massachusetts. And if someone hadn't told you about Olmsted, you wouldn't see it either.

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I imagined

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... shut down and the land returned to a more natural state that all can enjoy, than see a reasonable affordable housing proposal denied.

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We desperately need addiction recovery services and homeless services in this city. Take a place that has been used for healing and turn it towards a similar use. Make it a national model for integrated delivery of services. Repurpose the existing buildings where possible. Make any housing here be transitional housing as we reintegrate people into the mainstream. And then return a portion of the grounds to the park.

FWIW I'm a Roxbury resident.

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Exactly. Why waste millions rebuilding a bridge to Long Island when this site seems to have all the same advantages, including an existing dedicated MBTA bus route!

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Don't think they will ever get rid of the cockroaches, mice, not to mention the bedbugs.......

The place was badly infested, not sure that they ever got it under control.

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I was at the meeting. The JP Gazette article describes the proposal as one to create affordable housing on the two acre plot, but that is not accurate (and, therefore, your headline is inaccurate as well). The proposal is to create "Low Threshold" permanent housing for the chronically homeless along with supportive services. Here is a link to the proposal: https://www.mass.gov/service-details/supportive-housing-proposal-shattuc...

Though the proposal is dated July 2017, this was the first and only planned public meeting (May 31, 2018 is the end of the public comment period) before the Asset Management Board votes to move ahead with the RFP process for this 2 acre parcel. The proposal also seeks to waive certain statutes that would otherwise require legislative action to go forward. There will be a (yet undefined) process for the rest of the Shattuck grounds (which are largely falling apart). While there was debate about sufficient vs too much public process/delay, the vast majority of the comments were supportive of more engagement than has been proposed. My wife and I live in Roxbury, there was another gentleman who identified himself as a Roxbury resident, but I believe everyone else who stated where they lived were JP residents. Though the Shattuck has a 02130 zip, it sits in Franklin Park (the land was taken by legislative act in 1949), which sits primarily in Roxbury with sections in Dorchester, Mattapan, and JP. I requested additional meetings to include more of the actual park neighbors.

I am on the board of the Franklin Park Coalition. Lauren Peters, Undersecretary for Health Policy, will be briefly speaking on the Shattuck future plans (there are over 13 acres in total) at our FPC annual meeting tomorrow at the Franklin Park golf course club house (10-12). I can't (and wouldn't try) to speak for the rest of the FPC, but I am personally supportive of the proposal as long as a reasonable engagement with the community is made and the end product can be one where the housing and grounds are designed so that they are integrated into the park as a public/private space with substantial green space for the shared benefit of both residents and park users. The 1950s isolated/institutional feel of the current Shattuck with retaining walls and fencing separating it from the rest of the park need to be abolished. I'd love for the 13+ acres to come back to the park again, but that seems unlikely. And, yes, there is a large, immediate need for this type of housing (and, hey, let's also rebuild the damn bridge to Long Island while we're at it)

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I was also at the meeting and can confirm the accuracy of this description. Adam, fix your headline!

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Franklin Park was originally proposed as West Roxbury Park. It is entirely within the Jamaica Plain section of the old Town of West Roxbury. Blue Hill Ave marks the old boundary with Dorchester. The argument could be made that Seaver Street would be the boundary with Roxbury, but some may argue that the area to the immediate north of the Zoo is still Dorchester.

Other than that, thanks for the summary of the meeting.

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Folks, the proposal from the State is for HOMELESS housing, not Affordable Housing. The City is already looking to pour our taxpayer money into paying for this.

Concentrating HOMELESS here will do nothing to improve our community and neighborhood.

Affordable Housing and Market is not allowed as the land was taken from us for public health uses only.

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There's a homeless shelter by the entrance. You should go by there and check it out. From the sound of it, the idea is to give those who are homeless a place to transition to regular housing.

If you are serious about keeping the land for public health use, perhaps some kind of recovery program would be good.

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