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Forest Hills bus yard has apartments going up in front; now it could get some in back
By adamg on Wed, 05/11/2016 - 10:36am
Bus yard? What bus yard?
Developers have filed plans with the BRA to replace a small industrial building and parking lot on Stonley Road, behind the MBTA's Forest Hills bus yard, with a five-story, 31-unit residential building.
Because of the location within an easy walk of the Forest Hills subway, bus and commuter-rail station, developers Bryan Austin and Sean Morrissey are proposing only 23 parking spaces in an underground garage.
The proposal calls for 23 two-bedroom units, six one-bedroom units and two three-bedroom units. Five of the residential units will be set aside as affordable.
In their filing with the BRA, Austin and Morrissey say they hope their building will become a "gateway" to revitalizing the street, now filled with garages and light-industrial companies.
The proposed project will result in revitalizing the appeal and vibrancy of the Stonley Road Street streetscape through converting of an existing one story structure, previously used as an industrial facility with an empty lot area, in a residential area. The new building designed in a Boston vernacular, complementary to the surrounding neighborhood and structures. The project will include a partial, underground level housing 23 parking spaces with supporting facilities. In addition a new sidewalk along the frontage of the property and along Stonley Road adjacent to the MBTA bus Yard providing safe public pedestrian access on Stonley Road to Brookley Road. We will provide pedestrian crossing striping at the proposed project connecting adjacent sidewalk to sidewalk along MBTA bus depot and crossing striping at the Stonley Road and Brookley Road intersection.
76 Stonely Rd. small-project review application (4.6M PDF).
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Comments
Wasn't this already proposed?
I remember some kerfuffle about inappropriate developments on Stonley a few months back, no?
Built it.
Edit- here's the original post from late last year.
http://www.universalhub.com/2015/five-story-apartment-building-proposed-...
I thought this sounded familiar.
It's the same address, yeah. Looks like a really similar design, too. One fewer unit, comparable parking. I'll reiterate what I said last year about this: this is a criminally-underused property, less than five minutes' walk from Forest Hills, and currently containing nothing but blight. This is a completely reasonable development, which looks even MORE reasonable now that the huge building on the other side of Washington Street is mostly in place.
We need places for people to live. Build it.
This
We need places for (a lot of) people to live (next to the T and CR). Build it.
Cue the protestors
Can't wait to hear why this is the latest most horrible thing ever proposed that is destroying the fabric of JP. Will it be:
- gentrification?
- too much traffic?
- not enough community input?
- plot by developers?
- racism?
- destroying green space?
- not exactly what the neighbors wanted?
Fun new game
NIMBY BINGO
Adam, we should probably come up with 24 items and then create a NIMBY BINGO card.
To these I'd add:
* Not enough parking
* Doesn't fit the character of the neighborhood
* Sure, it increases housing supply, but the housing market doesn't actually care about supply and demand
etc
Aww, man
My new office is an open floor plan, so my bingo-card-making-at-work days are sadly over. Maybe a weekend project...
Fun. I Want to Play Too
- Not Enough 3-4 Bedrooms, You're Trying to Drive Out Families
-Too Many 3-4 Bedrooms, You're Going to Fill it With Students
-Too Much Parking
-This (Old auto salvage, factory, warehouse, etc) is Historic!
Let's add...
~Not enough affordable units
~Too may affordable units
Left out
You folks are leaving out a popular one: this building looks like it was designed by a vision-impaired accountant who thinks brown dacron leisure suits with broad orange ties are swell.
Not eco-friendly enough
Not eco-friendly enough
No local labor proposed for building it
Won't have an organic kombucha/brewery in ground floor space
Now what about the bus yard
Now what about the bus yard itself? The MBTA was supposed to hand over some of the property along Washington Street for development. It is a huge waste of space and an eyesore now.
Replacement bus yard?
Housing near transit hubs is important, but isn't there a need for transit maintenance sites also near the core of the system?
I.e. it does seem like space that would be great for housing but I assume we also need space in the city for a bus yard. So where might that go? Hyde Park industrial area? Then you're increasing the amount of empty buses driving to the yard whereas having this right next to a major hub means they are coming and out of service at the hub.
Or can they do all that at Forrest Hills with 1/2 the space or something?
I have no idea so I'm not trolling here but looking for actual urban design info...
Where are the nine thousand
Where are the nine thousand busses that duplicate routes along a rapid-transit-ready ROW corridor going to go, though??? They all spend 30 minutes going up and down the mile to the square so we have to keep a LOT of them on hand, after all!!!
They actually go beyond the Square
I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the buses that go from Forest Hills to Roslindale Square don't end there. They go to West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Dedham and points southward, and even Brookline. And since putting all of those places on a single line would be tough, they run multiple lines so all locations can be served.
Glad I was able to clear that up for you.
Is that the industrial
Is that the industrial building Google Maps pegs as "Squid Hell" ?I always wondered what that was.
Squid Hell is a sound
Squid Hell is a sound recording studio in a converted residential building further up the street.
Squid Hell
Does it still exist? Google maps doesn't always get updated when businesses move or fold.
Based on my assessment of the
Based on my assessment of the other private parking facilities in this neighborhood, I think a 23 space garage this close to the MBTA is likely to only rent about half of its spaces to actual residents.
Why do we have to keep building parking lots next to the train!??!?