Thousands of new units of residential housing could find their way into areas between Boston’s established neighborhoods if plans proposed by the Boston Society of Architects are taken up by the city.
Using land in the vicinity of the Forest Hills MBTA station in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of the city as a test case, the BSA is hoping to show city leaders and potential developers how slight changes in existing zoning laws could jump-start an infusion of new housing in the city where residential vacancy is at its lowest rate in years. In addition to adding to the city’s housing stock, the plan would also create links between some of Boston’s Main Street areas.
Our whole concept is to take underutilized land areas around the city and change the limited use of those pieces of land to allow for housing, said architect Alfred Wojciechowski, chair of the BSA’s housing committee. We want to create pleasant places to live and work.
The committee started working on the plan, called From Main Streets to Boulevards, in December 1999. Our committee was involved with the convention center plan, Wojciechowski recalled. In areas like around D Street, we helped to define some of the plans for the neighborhood. We were pleased with the results of that and started looking at other areas of the city.
Housing was a major discussion in the South Boston Waterfront, he continued. I thought, ‘Why should so much energy be focused in that area when it is such a citywide issue?’
Through a series of discussions, the Main Streets to Boulevards project emerged.
We decided to take a look at streets that connect neighborhoods, Wojciechowski said. It’s a pretty digestible notion.
To see if the plan could work, Wojciechowski said his committee selected a test site, around the Forest Hills MBTA station, to see what the potential was for new housing. It’s sort of a no-man’s land, he said of the site. It’s a place, but at the same time, it’s a non-place. It’s between two significantly developed areas, but the tissue in between is very underutilized.
Using overhead photos of the area, the committee identified parcels of land that it determined were either not used or underutilized and came up with proposals for different types of residential housing that could be built on those parcels. The committee used density figures between 60 and 80 units per acre, similar to those found in the Back Bay neighborhood of the city.
We decided to use Back Bay figures because no one thinks of the Back Bay as too densely populated. They think of it as nice and quaint, Wojciechowski said looking out onto Commonwealth Avenue from the headquarters of CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares, where he is a principal. No one calls the Back Bay Manhattan.
The results of the committee’s experiment were surprising. We came up with 3,000 to 6,000 units without doing anything wacky, Wojciechowski said. We just did this as an experiment. We didn’t know what the numbers were going to be, and the numbers turned out to be immense. And this is only one spot on a huge map.
In addition to putting in residential units, there are also plans for retail developments on the ground floors of some buildings. With thousands of new residents, new businesses would likely thrive, Wojciechowski said.
Using the same method of developing housing in other areas the committee has identified around the city, Wojciechowski said the result could be tens of thousands of additional housing units.
People complain there’s not enough land to build on in the city, but when you look at it, there’s a tremendous amount of land available, Wojciechowski said.
Reaching Out
Though the ultimate effects of Main Streets to Boulevards could dramatically change the housing market in the city, Wojciechowski stressed that the BSA plan is still only in its infancy stages. This has only been going on since Christmas, he said. It’s all very new.
Because the plans are so new, Wojciechowski said plans of action are only now beginning to be discussed, and no timelines for the project have been established.
Essentially, the BSA housing committee would try to work with groups like the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development, the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, the Rental Housing Association and different Main Streets groups to come up with proposals that would best benefit the neighborhood in question. In most cases, the plan would start with changing zoning laws to better suit residential development.
I’ve talked with a lot of developers, and most of them said they don’t want to be the one to go in and try to get a project through on their own because its so difficult, Wojciechowski said, adding that most developers don’t want to spend money on developing plans for a parcel of land without knowing whether the Board of Appeal will approve a zoning change for the project. It should be cleaner than that, he said.
The BSA proposals only identify parcels of land that, when grouped together and zoned for residential use, would create new residential areas. Development of the parcels would be left up to individuals or companies. Though new zoning would make the permitting process easier, developers would still have to meet with community groups to determine what would work best for the neighborhood.
The projects would be left up to the individual, Wojciechowski said, but the concept can apply throughout. If a building is being built next to a three-decker, they might step down the development to something that would complement the neighborhood. Other designs could include residential buildings with heights of up to seven stories. We’re trying to encourage a lot of flexibility for the communities as to not preclude small mom-and-pop developers who want to take a small parcel and develop it with their family, he said.
The idea has received some positive response from the city.
This is something we’re not opposed to, said Tom Philbin, spokesman for the Department of Neighborhood Development. While supporting the concept of the Main Streets to Boulevards plan, Philbin was more cautious about implementing broad-based zoning changes.
Right now we’re working on a case-by-case basis, rather than making any blanket changes, Philbin said.
Projects that have brought residential use to areas once home to just commercial space have worked in Dudley Square and in the South Boston, Philbin said, and the city is open to looking at more ways to expand residential areas as long as the neighborhood is receptive to the idea.
The Main Streets to Boulevards idea is not a bad concept, and we welcome the chance to work with it, he continued. We’re trying to get together to craft something right now. We’re just trying to get a healthy balance in the neighborhoods.
Although the housing committee chose Jamaica Plain in Boston for its experimental look at zoning changes and creating links between neighborhoods, Wojciechowski said the same idea could easily be duplicated elsewhere in the city and beyond.
This really could be applied to any city where housing is a problem, he said. We just used Boston as a vehicle. But if you can move this idea in Boston, it might have a ripple effect.