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Developers propose another residential building overlooking the Arborway bus yard in Forest Hills
By adamg on Mon, 09/16/2019 - 5:37pm
Architect's rendering.
Two developers want to build a four-story, 46-unit residential building at Brookley Road and Steadman Street behind the Arborway bus yard - and across the street from a 21-unit apartment building that won BPDA and zoning-board approval earlier this year.
The $14.2-million building at 35 Brookley Rd. would replace what developers Matthew Zahler and Jeffrey Glew call the "rather tired" offices, warehouse and parking lot of Northeast Petroleum Service and Supply, which sells equipment for commercial and industrial liquid handling, from gas and water pumps to fuel and water tanks.
Their proposal calls for 3 artist live/work units, 8 studio units, 9 with one bedroom each and 26 with two bedrooms. Ten of the units would be rented or sold as affordable. The proposal does not specify if the units would be rentals or condos.
The "transit oriented" building - located a short walk from the Forest Hills train and bus station - would have 21 parking spaces.
In addition to the recently approved Steadman Street building, Washington Street across from the bus yard has been filling up with new condos and apartments.
35 Brookley Rd. small-project review application (2.6M PDF).
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Comments
Great view. The bus yard
Great view. The bus yard that won"t go away in my lifetime. I'm still grieving over Doyle's who's closing will no doubt see more of us die-hards going to the Galway. Eddie Lanzillo, I beg you please don't leave us.
Bus yards
do not qualify for the "transit oriented" development genre. So follow the law, and no BPDA bull crap, and put in the required amount of parking.
True, but ...
Forest Hills and Green Street do, and the developer says both are close enough to make this building transit-oriented.
Build extra parking, get
Build extra parking, get extra traffic.
If it's near transit, it should have less parking. And this is near transit.
You car fetisihists need to stop with your parking obsession.
Please tell us
How safe and reliable the T is.
Remember 15 years ago when
Remember 15 years ago when the mbta said they would give up the bus yard so it could be developed? Why aren't they being held accountable for such a blatant lie?
Because ...
When they finally came out with a plan, they said it would cost $200 million and they had more pressing things to spend that kind of money on, so the "temporary" depot got to stay. Whether that's believable is another issue, but that's the rationale they gave (and in any case, the plan didn't call for abandoning the site, just making the bus yard a lot smaller and selling off the remaining land for residential development).
You really mean
when the crackpot neighborhood advisory group was done perfecting their plan the money was no longer available. JP specializes in only doing "perfect" and not "good" and so they dicked around asking for the sky until long after their due date and missed their window. Would it be nice if we could put more money into the T so it could actually maintain itself? YES. Would it be nice if JP could be filled with reasonable people who know how to compromise for everyone's benefit? YES.
More people, still no services
For the love of god can we please get some basic amenities before we have any more housing? I've been bitching about needing a bodega (let alone a grocery store) for 6 years now. I just want to buy a gallon of milk. These realtors keep building more and more housing yet not providing ANYthing for the community who lives here. MetroMark built retail space but kept the damn rent so high they've been vacant for 2 years now.
I am SO OVER MARTY WALSH and his deadbeat administration. They need to step the hell up and manage these developments for the good of the community. You can't keep adding people and nothing else (restaurants, stores, bodegas, etc.).
Hi FH Neighbor! How about
Hi FH Neighbor! How about another bank? Or another new restaurant or pub that closes after struggling for 2 years?
Write the Mayor
Your concerns sound reasonable. I assume you have been active in making these issues known to the city?
Better yet, I went to the
Better yet, I went to the community meetings and voiced my concerns to Marty's staff directly during community planning meetings. I also went to the meetings for MetroMark. Fat lot of good that did me. The community liaison for BPDA left and went to go work for one of the worst landlords in the city (Mordecai) who purposefully leaves retail spots vacant so he can keep the rents high. He'd rather empty storefronts.
I've also followed up with MetroMark directly about the empty storefronts and have reached out to my Councilor (O'Malley) for whom this is supposedly an interest. Still nothing.
So no, I don't just complain on the internet. I have tried being active in my community but the city doesn't listen, the realtors don't give a damn, and Forest Hills is becoming more and more inhabited without much services. If anyone was paying attention (city or developers) they would realize that housing without amenities is not exactly sustainable. I really didn't think that asking for a local/walkable place to buy milk would be quite so difficult (nor so controversial to my internet neighbors who so clearly have the larger neighborhood's interest at heart).
This is the Boston of the
This is the Boston of the future: housing affordable only to singles and childless couples making six figures, restaurants only affordable to the same, gyms for them to join, and offices for the tech companies (both bio- and otherwise) they work at. No other services. By the time a resident needs more space or gets sick of needing to order groceries online from Amazon and take an Uber for every trip longer than a block, there will be five new people eager to take their place and willing to pay even higher rent. The city saves millions. Everybody wins, except for reality.
Co-signed
The only market now that the co-op closed is the bodega on Tower St. They've been doing better with all the customers they now serve and have upgraded but it's still not going to be enough if those units plan to be filled with a few hundred more people. Hopefully another market will go in where Harvest failed.
Bodega
To be fair, this isn't really a retail location. The Washington Street developments are certainly appropriate for retail, but this section of Brookley would not be a popular choice for retailers.
Wasn't suggesting retail in
Wasn't suggesting retail in this location. Was suggesting that when we consider development in the neighborhood we consider if the area has basic amenities to support more people. The problem is that the developers who did include retail as part of their approved plans have not had their feet held to the fire to actually implement this and have been able to get away with 2 years of vacant storefronts.
Bodega
If there is no bodega that can afford the rent, part of the problem is that there aren't enough people to support the business at the level needed to generate funding for rent. Maybe another apartment building will help. I don't think Marty Walsh is in charge of free market commercial activity, but go ahead and blame him anyway.
corner store
Fine a corner store does need to be in the area, as someone who has lived, worked, and been around this area of Forest Hills, Egelston for over 20 years..yes corner stores, bodgegas, and food stores are needed. And yes we can blame the mayor and developers for the costs and rents. Those are included in proposals and the City felt the proposal was reasonable for who they want in the area, not who is in the area. So now we have this. Everywhere in Boston. They only build for who they want.
Bodegas
The city has imposed very costly affordable requirements...nowhere more than in the JP ROX area. It would be a better use of resources if developers were allowed to provide affordable retail rents in lieu of residential affordable in order to attract small local retailers. If the community wants retail uses that fill that need they need to show flexibility.
But to someone else's point, JP often makes perfect the enemy of good. You can't have net zero emission buildings and community space, and cheap retail and double the affordable ratios and good design and open space. But nobody has the political will to tell the community: no mas.