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Triple decker approved on vacant lot on Longfellow Street in Dorchester

The Zoning Board of Appeal on Tuesday approved builder Neil Guilden's plans to construct a three-decker with three parking spots on what has long been a vacant lot at 17 Longfellow St. in Dorchester.

Some Longfellow Street residents opposed the proposal for the 3,400-square-foot lot, saying a triple decker would stick out like a sore thumb on a street with mainly one- and two-family homes, and would cause parking issues. One resident said it better belongs around the corner on Ridgewood Street, which has several, larger vacant lots they said would be more suitable.

Ivette Matos, who lives on one side of the lot, and Hector Polanco, who lives on the other, though, said it makes no sense to leave the lot vacant when it could be used to help people who need a place to live. Polcanco used to own the lot until he sold it to Matos for $100 last year.

Another Longfellow Street resident said Polanco bought the parcel in 2000 under the city's then "yard sale" program to dispose of small lots.

Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records show that Polanco bought the lot from the city then for $750 - and that one of the conditions on the deed was that he not build anything on it, with the exception of an extension of his home. However, when he sold the land to Matos last year, the new deed stated that it "removes, releases, terminates and extinguishes" any conditions the city set on the land in 2000.

The board voted unanimously to approve the variances the building needs because the lot was too small and the building too large under its zoning. The building also didn't have enough frontage and its side and rear yards were too small under its zoning.

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Comments

there’s literally three triple deckers in a row one house away from the lot!!

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How does that work? Who gets to approve the removal of a deed restriction?

If you look at the block on Google Maps, the lots are all the same size, and all have houses almost completely filling the width of the lot. I'm glad the ZBA decided it was fine for one more house of a similar footprint. Though a more efficient resolution would be changing the zoning so new buildings similar to existing ones are allowed without an appeal, which is supposed to be the point of zoning in the first place.

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When there was so much of a housing glut the city sold off land stipulating that it remain vacant!

If you really want to see something which detracts from the character of the neighborhood and "sticks out like a sore thumb" check out the random split level on a street full of three-deckers over on Ridgewood.

The thing is, you don't need a variance to build that! (It was built around 1980, probably, and of course there used to be six families living there instead of one.)

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The random split live in the middle of triple deckers (and larger) isn't even that uncommon in Boston. My favorite view is this spot on Rawson St in Dorchester. Just a nice cozy single family built in 1989 with a two car garage in the middle of fairly dense housing. There's a 6+ unit building across the street.

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Love the picket fence.

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That's a colonial. Built in '87.

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However, when he sold the land to Matos last year, the new deed stated that it "removes, releases, terminates and extinguishes" any conditions the city set on the land in 2000

Hopefully for the developers the city signed off of that deed restriction. It was the city that put it there under the terms of the Yard Sale program, and the restriction will remain there until the city, which sold it well below market value, agrees to remove the restriction. From what I have heard from my contacts at the Department of Neighborhood Development, the city will agree to remove such deed restrictions and replace it with one that requires whatever is built there is sold or rented at a certain percentage below market value.

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The City did sign off on lifting the deed restriction and the ZBA had paperwork to that effect in the packet. I believe the ONS rep also confirmed verbally that it had been done.

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If building a triple decker on this lot is ok, it should be ok on every single lot on this street.

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