Zoning board listens to City Point neighbors, rejects multi-unit proposal that met zoning requirements

By adamg on Tue, 02/27/2018 - 1:02pm

The Board of Appeals today denied a developer's request to replace a two-family home at 37 Farragut Rd. with a four-story, eight-unit building after neighbors pleaded they'd had enough with developers densifying their neighborhood with multi-unit buildings aimed at childless yuppies.

But the lawyer for developer Ryan Hunt hinted legal action could be in the board's future - because the building did not exceed any of the lot's zoning. Attorney George Morancy said that while a part of the property sits in a special "greenway protection" district because of its proximity to Day Boulevard, Massachusetts courts have repeatedly ruled that alone cannot be used to deny projects.

Residents and city officials, however, rose as one to say they were sick of what's happening to City Point: Developers buying up single and two-family homes to replace them with multi-unit buildings - if nowhere near the size of the complexes going up along West Broadway.

"All of a sudden, our neighborhood is just disappearing," Mary Bulger, an East 3 Street resident - and wife of the former state-senate president - told the board. "Taking single-family and two-family homes to make condos and apartments is just killing us," another East 3 Street resident said.

"This'll be like a mini-hotel to us," another East 3 St. resident said of Ryan Hunt's proposal for a building with four one-bedroom units, three two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit. He said it just has no place in a neighborhood of single- and two-family homes and triple deckers.

The offices of Mayor Walsh and city councilors Ed Flynn (South Boston), Michael Flaherty (at large) and Annissa Essaibi-George (at large) joined residents in opposition.

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Comments

Meh

By anon²
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 1:17pm

Enjoy increasing prices and more yuppification!

You can't hold back the tide, just accommodate the future in the best, least destructive way possible. 130,000 new residents by 2030 need a place to live, and with the seaport the hot new mixed use neighborhood, South Boston is going to be the new South End.

The only question is if enough medium income housing can also be built to keep displacement to a minimum.

Great!

By bosguy22
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 1:19pm

So glad the eyesore with broken windows and beer bottles in the bushes gets to stay...unlike the very well done building next door which replaces an essentially vacant lot. Glad Mary doesn't have to deal with any more "newcomers".

I'm glad too!

By OFSouthie
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 1:39pm

I am sick of newcomers too.

Thank you!

By PH
Sat, 03/03/2018 - 8:59pm

Just so you know, that break in the window was because someone walking by( not a resident) threw a brick through the window into the house. Landlord was immediately notified about it and said it would be replaced immediately and to no surprise, nothing has been done. Thank you for your concern though!

Some locations are going to

By anon
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 3:00pm

Some locations are going to become more expensive, and that estimate doesn't mean that all locations are going to be able, putting aside this location. Not all neighborhoods are supposed to completely rebuild themselves just because some people don't think costs should ever increase.

I don't get it. Streetview

By anon
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 1:37pm

I don't get it. Streetview shows a row of multi-unit buildings adjacent to it.

Many of them have far less

By anon
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 3:02pm

Many of them have far less than 8 units.

That also shows that many of

By anon
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 3:10pm

That also shows that many of the other buildings on that street are 3 stories instead of the proposed 4. Many of them have far less than 8 units.

Well Done!

By OFSouthie
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 1:39pm

Great! Last thing Southie needs is more condos. Thank you, ZBA!

Well the region needs more

By Tyler
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 5:29pm

Well the region needs more condos. There are more people who want to live in Boston then there are places to live. That's why it's so expensive.

Well done indeed

By zetag
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 5:39pm

Keep the supply low and drive the property values up! Soon enough the remaining townies won't be able to afford their property taxes and will be forced to move elsewhere.

Worse

By anon²
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 11:04pm

The rich will buy up the three level split familys and convert then back into single families, in the 1.5 million range.

Good luck to the old guard, you're going to have to sell on that fixed income of yours..

How long does Mary plan on

By Resident
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 1:47pm

How long does Mary plan on staying to be so offended by progress? Until she’s 150? You can’t fight progress. The population is growing and these parochial nimby rants denying a project that is compliant with the brand new zoning is as Dangerouse as any of the scary crap Trump is doing. Of course Flynn supports Trump, and Anissa who’s husband is also a developer and gotten lots of zoning “relief” for her projects. She should stay away from these issues to not look conflicted. She must attend to her other duties of holding the Msyors umbrella ☔️.

The IPOD turned property

By Steve Brady
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 2:08pm

The IPOD turned property ownership in City Point into pure Calvinball. You'd have to be nuts to buy land there now. Your wealthy busybody neighbors and their delicate feelings have veto power over anything you do.

Furious

By blues_lead
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 2:15pm

I hope he sues.

These people love their neighborhood so much, they would hate to have any more neighbors to share it with. Living near other people will "kill them".

I thought we were turning a corner with allowing more housing in Boston, to do something about the housing crunch. I guess I was right in a way, with this and the Roxbury and Mission Hill decisions a week or so ago, but turning in the wrong direction.

Mary Bulger

By zetag
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 2:52pm

"My husband and I protected a mass murderer for decades but it's the yuppies who are ruining the neighborhood."

She can F right off.

Bulger

By notpoliticallyc...
Wed, 02/28/2018 - 4:53pm

You got proof? Bring it on. Oh, you read it on the internet so it must be true. Buffoon.

They're lucky but act like the world is out to get them

By Kaz
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 3:04pm

Have you ever looked closely at a satellite picture of Southie?

What a fucking waste of space everything is. Random burial grounds. Streets like Emerson just cutting through willy-nilly. Some houses abutt their neighbors, others don't. Random giant parking lots for some random small commercial building. Random buildings above 5 stories. Random backyards...or not.

The results of things growing "organically" in the neighborhood. It's both character and destructive to development.

They should be glad they've had it this good for so long.

A combination of boards and

By anon
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 3:15pm

A combination of boards and zoning result in building decisions, not random interpretations of what should get more development.

With all due respect

By Smh
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 10:11pm

You sir, are a god clam moron.

Far too much open space has been replaced by sq footage.

Lived here my entire life, some change is as good as it is inevitable and I’m fine with that... but families don’t move into 1.4 million dollar condos. We have to stop catering to the 5/1 ARM mentality.

My favorite part is somehow, even in a place like Southie, gentrification led to an increase in functioning alcohols... what a world. College is over, act accordingly, and please stop waiting in line to get into Lincoln.

Random burial grounds? You

By anon
Thu, 03/15/2018 - 11:25pm

Random burial grounds? You have a problem with people being buried in their hometown? Where the hell did you grow up, you ghoul? Those grave yards are important part of our American Heritage, some graves date from colonial times, you are a Philistine.

Welcome to reality

By Kaz
Wed, 03/21/2018 - 10:06am

Moving burial grounds happens all the time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/business/yourmon...

We moved burial plots on the Common when they were discovered because we built the Tremont Street Subway line down the side of the Common (the first subway line). Should we shut down the Green Line at Arlington and move all the bodies back now?

There used to be potter's fields all over Manhattan Island...and now it's all New York City.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-young/manhatta...

Some of the ones described here even pre-date anything buried in South Boston.

Ever visit europe?

By anon
Wed, 03/21/2018 - 10:41am

It is west of Worcester.

Go to Paris and visit the Catacombs.

It used to be common practice to remove bodies every few years and put the bones in mausoleums called ossuaries, because land was scarce and best not wasted on the deceased.

It is high time the BPDA

By timothy J. Sheehan
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 3:28pm

It is high time the BPDA started to listen to the people who already live in the city before they worry about all those people who think they might like to live here sometime in the future. Current residents pay the taxes and maintain the property values those taxes are based on.

great attitude

By SC from JP
Wed, 02/28/2018 - 9:16am

Let's work to make sure that nobody except the very wealthiest can enjoy the opportunities that Boston offers. The current residents have gotten rich, so now it's time to lock the door behind them.

This, right here, is why we have a housing crisis - not just in Boston, but in cities across the country. Local control is exacerbating inequality and preventing people from moving to where the local economy is strongest.

Mary Bulger's husband makes

By JJ
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 3:55pm

Mary Bulger's husband makes over 200k per year for not working (pension paid by taxpayers).

Why do politicians involve

By dm12
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 4:22pm

Why do politicians involve themselves in what should be non political matters regarding code compliance?

Politicians that intrude on this process should get a scarlet letter.

Serious question, why hasn't my comment been added Adam?

By thr
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 4:24pm

Complete garbage people

By Will LaTulippe
Tue, 02/27/2018 - 5:30pm

Both these residents, and a government which crafted a tax code and a series of zoning laws to reward shelter profiteering. These people have come to rely on the basic need of human shelter as a profit center.

If they ever get sick and lose everything, their GoFundMe will receive a total of $0 from me. I have more sympathy for starving dogs than I do for anybody who went to this meeting and said "no, humans don't deserve shelter in my neighborhood." Must be a great place to live if you don't want anybody else to show up.

So 1980s