Image courtesy of The Nordblom Company
Burlington-based developer The Nordblom Company is proposing Coolidge Corner’s second new apartment building in decades, in place of a parking lot it owns.
But it will need Brookline Town Meeting to approve a zoning overlay for the site to proceed.
Plans presented to the town Planning Board last week show a 7-story building rising on the site of an L-shaped parking lot at 26 Pleasant St. with 103 units, 15 percent of which will be set aside as affordable housing.
Amenities will include a fitness center, 60 underground parking spots, a coworking space and a rooftop “community room,” and the building will be a block and a half away from the Green Line’s C branch.
A zoning overlay to allow the building to proceed would allow multifamily housing and floor-area ratios of up to 4 on the site, set the height limit at 85 feet and reduce the property’s minimum share of usable open space to 10 percent, making the building less massive than several neighboring multifamily mid-rises. The project would still need to follow town affordable housing and parking rules.
Brookline Town Meeting is currently scheduled to next meet in May.
A fiscal impact analysis filed for the project shows the parking lot currently generates $30,727 in local property taxes per year, while the apartment building would generate $597,170.
Public comments filed with the project contained a mix of strong praise and opposition, with supporters – including a number of town meeting members representing the neighborhood – noting the need for more housing and the project’s proximity to transit and opponents claiming it would create increased traffic congestion and stating that the development team has conducted insufficient community engagement work.
Brookline rezoned the Harvard Avenue commercial corridor, which passes through Coolidge Corner, in 2023 to comply with the MBTA Communities law, but developers have found the zoning’s 4-story height limits aren’t tall enough to enable financially viable projects. Those limits came from a compromise between pro- and anti-housing factions.
