Developer files plans for 124-unit apartment building where it once proposed a charter school on Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale

The Dedham developer that once would have built a charter school at the old Clay car dealership and garage on Belgrade Avenue yesterday filed detailed plans with the BPDA for a five-story residential building with 124 units and 86 parking spaces - and green space on what is now a parking lot.

In its filing, Upton+Partners of Dedham says its new proposal, for a much larger building than had been proposed for the Roxbury Prep high school that a group of nearby residents successfully blocked, comes "in response to the preference and community sentiment previously expressed and in direct response to community input on the prior charter school proposal."

The new building on the almost acre lot would be 129,000 square feet, compared to the 50,000-square-foot school plan

The apartments will be split between 25 studios, 65 one-bedroom units and 34 two-bedroom apartments. Of those units, 18 would be rented as affordable, or 14.5% of the total units, compared to the city requirement of 13%.

The company says it doesn't need to supply a one-to-one ratio of parking spaces because Belgrade Avenue is served by several bus lines and there's a Needham Line train stop right next to the proposed building. The proposal also calls for dedicated bike lanes in front of the building along Belgrade Avenue. Upton+Partners says it will set aside space - and pay $49,000 - for a Bluebikes station on West Roxbury Parkway.

To help the building fit into the neighborhood, the Belgrade-facing side of the building will included "porches, stoops and other exterior spaces that activate the street edge and public realm along Belgrade Avenue."

Also, the proposed residential building will "reduce the existing site’s vast industrial curb-cut openings and provide much-needed upgrades in pedestrian connectivity and new public realm," and construction will include creation of roughly 7,200 square feet of publicly accessible greenspace right next to the green sward along West Roxbury Parkway, mostly by ripping up and replanting what is now a parking lot along West Roxbury Parkway.

The company says the new building will be all electric - no gas mains and no gas ovens or heating systems.

The proposed pedestrian entrance would be at the corner of Belgrade Avenue and Belgrade Terrace, the dead end that leads to the train station. Residents with cars would enter and exit an underground garage off the dead end.

361 Belgrade Ave. filings and calendar.