Gas is not more gas in Jamaica Plain, board says

The Zoning Board of Appeal today rejected plans by the venerable Hatoff's on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain to add more gas pumps, after nearby residents fumed over what they said would be more pollution and noise from motorists filling their tanks with the cheap gas.

Also at issue: Seemingly competing plans by a developer to completely raze the gas station and a neighboring garageto put up more than 200 apartments.

The board voted unanimously to reject the plans without prejudice, which means owner John Tamvakologos could come back with new plans in less than a year, but they'd have to be plans significantly different from today's proposal, which called for replacing a rear building on the lot with eight new gas pumps, to go with the twelve existing pumps closer to Washington Street.

Tamvakologos's attorney, Timothy Fraser, acknowledged his client's new pumps might only be relatively temporary, that he might actually be "in the last few years of this business" before electric cars completely replace gas-powered vehicles. But he asked the board to extend the conditional permit the gas station has had since the 1980s to allow more pumps.

He acknowledged that Tamvakologos has discussed selling his proper to Joe Hassell's Boston Real Estate Capital for the apartments, no agreement is in place, he said, and he asked the board to consider the proposed addition of new gas pumps separately from that discussion.

Jeff Hampton of the Boston Planning Department said the apartment proposal is only in its "very early stages" of the detailed review required of a project of that size.

Besides, Fraser said, adding more pumps would reduce the number of cars that now sometimes queue up right on Washington Street - and reduce pollution and noise as patrons get in and out more quickly - along with the new pumps being outfitted with credit-card readers so customers would no longer have to go into the office to pay. He said that Hatoff's sits in the middle of what is basically an auto zone, with repair garages on either side of it - and that it has faithfully served up cheap gas since it moved there in 1981, after the state took its original location to build the current Forest Hills Orange Line station.

And, he added: Razing the building now used as a home for keno/scratchies addicts, so bonus: Less discarded trash and failed lottery tickets floating around the neighborhood.

Residents snorted at all of that. They pointed to the history of road expansion in the US, which ultimately always means more cars, not less, and said an expanded gas station would only bring more customers. They said the location of the new pumps in the rear of the lot would mean more headlights shining into homes on Kenton Road and said a lot of the noise is not from people waiting to gas up but from people who have turned the Hatoff lot into a party zone, where they crank the music up until late at night.

And don't get them started on the increased safety risk to pedestrians - including students from English High across the street - walking along Washington Street, and the increased risk to them and other motorists from the way some drivers would use the station lot as a cut through from Washington to Kenton.

Today's Washington Street is no longer Stan Hatoff's Washington Street, they added: It's in the process of changing from largely industrial to largely residential - the planning department recently approved razing one of the two garages Fraser mentioned with condos, while the other one would be replaced under the larger plans that include the Hatoff's lot, leaving residents to breath in gas fumes from the place.

If Tamvakologos is serious about reducing emissions, they said, he should be installing new EV chargers rather than new gas pumps - something they said they wanted to discuss with him, but claimed he refuses to talk to neighbors.

And those new self-service credit card readers? The existing pumps already have them, yet people continue to go to the office to pay in cash, to save money on the gas that is, as Stan says, gas.

In addition to immediate neighbors, the Stony Brook Neighborhood Association, the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Association and City Councilor Benjamin Weber (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury) opposed the project.