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A bit of industrial land in Roslindale could become a 42-unit apartment building
By adamg on Thu, 05/25/2017 - 9:31pm
Rendering by Choo & Co.
Local developer Owen Kiernan is proposing to use a vacant piece of land at 43 Lochdale Road for a five-story, 42-unit apartment building that on one side would offer views of the nearby Arnold Arboretum and on the other, the backs of triple deckers and a coin laundry on Washington Street.
Kiernan's lawyer and architect met with a small group of residents tonight to go over preliminary plans for the structure, which has yet to go to either the BPDA or the zoning board. The building, roughly three-quarters of a mile from the Forest Hills T stop, would include a 49-car garage and enough storage space for at least 42 bicycles, and possibly more.
Most of the units would have two bedrooms, with four units having just one. The top floor would have two-bedroom units with studies. Attorney George Morancy said his client would be willing to consider making the studies into third bedrooms aimed at families, if that's what the neighborhood wants.
Five of the units would be rented as "affordable" to people making no more than 70% of the area median income.
Morancy acknowledged that given the site's location off congested Washington Street that traffic could be an issue. The building is not large enough to absolutely require a detailed traffic study, but he said the developer might wind up doing one - and figuring out if there's a way to funnel some traffic onto the nearby Arboretum Road rather than making all residents and guests use Lochdale - on which the owner of an existing self-storage place is looking to expand.
Morancy said the building would need several variances from the Board of Appeal, starting with the fact that the vacant parcel is zoned for industrial, not residential use.
A couple of residents suggested the development team get in contact with the Arboretum Park Conservancy, which is working to tie an Arboretum path to Washington Street by way of a new gate at the tunnel under the train tracks at the end of Arboretum Road, and to look at working with the city somehow on its planned expansion of Hubway bike-sharing to Roslindale.
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Comments
Welcome
... to the South End. Pretty soon there will be more apartment blocks than 1-2 family homes that make the town what it is. Sigh... it was nice while it lasted.
Yeah we're all shedding tears
Yeah we're all shedding tears for the loss of a decrepit industrial parking lot :,( :,( There goes the character of the neighborhood :,( :,(
Alternative?
Very much understand that no one likes to see their neighborhoods change, but if we want more housing in this City (the only way to lower/slow housing costs) then where else should we be building it? If you build it further downtown it will be more expensive.
I'm actually asking your opinion on alternatives instead of just being snarky. Neighborhood change & gentrification are a big deal.
Correlation
Notice that the people whining about the cost of housing are mostly the same people whining about development of additional housing.
And bragging about their property value.
Town?
Boston is a city, not a town.
This was farmland before it was annexed to Boston.
Things change. Human up and deal with it or move to the exurbs.
Are you new here?
Boston is most certainly a city, but it is known lovingly by those who grew up here as a "town." As in, "we are having diner in town." Please note, I hope not to open the debate about where Town is, as that will probably crash the internet. I think we can all agree that Town is wherever you mean it to be and where the person to whom your speaking should know it is.
All of that said, I am unabashedly pro-development, pro density, and especially pro-infill of derelict commercial and industrial parcels. If people want to build an apparment building on this lot and think they can sell units in them, proceed.
Nah
in 'town' mean people view it as a town? I just say downtown most people i know say downtown when we say were going downtown. If i say ton its basically short for downtown. If im outside of Boston with people we head to the city. Dunno what youe talking about with this 'town' thing to stat with..
Welcome to Union Sq.,
Welcome to Union Sq., Somerville.
This is what it replaces
https://goo.gl/maps/q7m43R2rdrt
Just build it already.
It's still Roslindale
While it may seem removed from the main body of action, that is still Roslindale. Loss of local business also impacts us.
Take a stronger look at the plans and diagrams as well as city details.
Many of these streets that back up to the Needham branch are private ways, meaning they have no sidewalks, and city services are limited. For example, snow plowing is at a minimum just to assure emergency vehicles have access.
And the Needham branch itself... while it has limited train service when compared to other lines, the trains still "rumble" through there, and that is close.
People planning on living there need to be aware of that.
At the least its not a rail yard. The MBTA has been considering taking some land behind Emporium Gas and vicinity for a rail storage yard of commuter rail train sets at one point, but the plan was abandoned.
Also the link offered for a picture of the place is HIGHLY MISLEADING. This is a demolition of the self-storage building and the project in question is ADDRESSED on Lochdale but extends back to Mahler.
View the PDF of the maps, aerials and the rest here:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0ahUKEwjn3Oi90Y3UAhUG7iYKHcc6C0UQFgg_MAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bostonplans.org%2Fdocuments%2Fprojects%2Fdevelopment-project-filings%2F44-lochdale-small-project-review-application-2017&usg=AFQjCNFImIwttfFz4WVj-pcL2dYKasVhkg&cad=rja
No commercial jobs will be lost with this building
It's planned for that rarest of things: A vacant lot that, as far as the architect could tell, has always been vacant. It's currently used as a parking lot.
You do raise an interesting question, though: There ARE a number of commercial properties between there and Forest Hills, where we already had the newish building with the Harvest in it, its skinny cousin across the street and the new addition to the monument building. With new housing going in across the tracks on Hyde Park Avenue, if our current building boom continues, how much longer before developers start proposing housing for the lumberyard, Emporium, etc.?
Until developers can eminent
Until developers can eminent domain themselves all over these businesses, I'd say the loss of these established areas is actually down to the business themselves. If the lumber yard wants to cash out, they don't then get to claim big mean developer and cry crocodile tears about it.
People = business
More people in the area? More business for local businesses. The types of businesses may change, but vehicle storage places and many industrial type places have many reasons to relocate anyway. As in, they can't expand. They use a lot of trucks. Etc.
These are arguments against?
Sounds if anything like a professional management company with 40 odd units will have a lot of motivation from their tenants to help keep that street plowed even if the city is lagging on it.
I don't get the point about the train. Yes, it'll cause noise? Anyone who is renting in that building will be able to see it and judge for themselves whether or not they can deal with it. You're saying OMG WE SHOULDN'T BUILD BECAUSE THE TRAIN WILL MAKE NOISE but the train's already there. If anything, a nice tall building will probably help muffle some of the noise coming off towards Washington.
That said, the Needham line is hardly bad. I have about 30" between my back door and the traintracks and the worst interruption we get is the occasional whistle as the thing comes out of the square station. Noise will be worse when they eventually inevitably have to replace it with an orange line but who's really going to be complaining about that
Here is more info:http://www
Here is more info:
http://www.walkuproslindale.org/weblog/tag/43-lochdale-road/
Sorry, but the first thing I
Sorry, but the first thing I see in this picture is the graffiti all over the laundromat.
42 Units Roslindale
I am grateful that this project is coming to the area, because it's important to clean up all the dilapidated rental property . This new building will help do just that. Development is the solution to cleaning up Boston, and keeping it a world class city.
Kiernan is playing the long game
At least that's my theory.
My gut is eventually he will buy out the adjacent property owners on Washington Street and roll out phase 2 of this.
Good luck to him. This looks like a great idea.