Apartment building proposed off Centre Street in West Roxbury with no affordable housing, but way more parking than city now calls for

A Medfield developer yesterday filed plans to replace a vacant nursing home at 5 Redlands Rd. in West Roxbury with a three-story, 30-unit apartment building with 45 underground parking spaces - and real spaces, not some complex mechanical stacker system.

The proposal by the Larkin Real Estate Group contains no affordable units. A city requirement that at least 13% of the units in a development of this size be rented at reduced rates to people making no more than a certain amount is only triggered if the project requires zoning variances and, unusually for a Boston project, Larkin says its new building fully complies with the zoning for the lot.

This includes the lot's zoning for parking - at 1.5 spaces per apartment. In recent years, the BPDA has generally looked askance at proposals with more than one space per unit, especially for projects on multiple bus lines and a short walk to a train station - the site is a short walk to both three bus lines and two Needham Line stops. But agreeing with the BPDA that the Boston zoning code has not been updated to reflect more modern thinking on the role of cars in a big city and so file a proposal with less parking would trigger the need to go before the zoning board for a variance for inadequate parking, which in turn would require at least four of the apartments be rented at reduced rates.

The city recently changed its affordable requirements so that all projects that require planning review, regardless of zoning compliance, would have to to include affordable units, but that change - which also ups the percentage of required affordable units from 13% to 17% - doesn't go into effect until Oct. 1.

Larkin says it is "being mindful to the chosen site proximity to several bus stops and commuter rail stations" and will encourage residents to walk, bicycle or take public transportation rather than constantly driving their cars up the relatively narrow and steep one-way Redlands Road. The company says it will pay to have the pedestrian crossing at Redlands and Centre Street re-aligned to make it safer for pedestrians. It adds:

The Proposed Project would foster density growth in an area while adding minimal vehicular traffic due to its proximity to several public transit options, a pharmacy, grocery store, post office, banks, and restaurants. The unit mix leans towards attracting families especially with the proximity to the Holy Name Elementary School within easy walking distance.

Apartments will range from studios to three-bedroom units.

The filing says the building was designed to blend in with the rest of Redlands Road, which consists mainly of single-family homes:

The elevation along Redlands Road pulls from the residential expressions up the road,using the shingle siding from the single families as a base massing for the building. Along the façade, gabled bays and forms are introduced to pull the residential environment down to Centre Street and create a rhythm down the hill that creates these almost single-family scale moments to break up the façade. The largest move is the introduction of recessed decks to maximize the adjacent entrance and reduce the massing visually into two smaller ones.

The Stonehedge Rehabilitation and Skilled Care Center closed in 2021.

The Boston Planning Department will hold an online meeting about the proposal at 6 p.m. on Sept. 26.

5 Redlands Rd. filings and meeting/comments schedule.