32-unit apartment building approved for Jeffries Point despite last-minute opposition from, um, New Hampshire

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved a developer's plans to replace a parking lot at 279 Maverick St. in East Boston with a five-story, 32-unit apartment building.

MG2 Group's plans, approved by the BPDA in May, include five units to be rented to people making no more than 70% of the Boston area median income. Apartments will range from studios to 3-bedroom units.

The building will have a garage with room for 18 cars, using a "stacker" system, as well as four street-level spaces.

The city Office of Neighborhood Services said the project had received a number of letters of support, but also letters of opposition from people in New Hampshire.

"I'm curious as to why anyone from New Hampshire would weigh in on an East Boston project but who knows?" board Chairman Mark Erlich said. Erlich did not ask an office liaison in the meeting why people north of the border were opposed to the project and the liaison did not volunteer the information.

The building will replace a parking lot, next to a new building at 287 Maverick St. that won final city approval in 2018.

Tim Loranger, the Embarc architect on the project, said his design references that building but that he used a different colored facade so the two buildings didn't wind up looking like one large project.

279 Maverick St. filings.