B’Nai Brith plans to construct a nine-story, 42-unit addition to its Covenant House facility on Mount Hood Road in Brighton.
Topographically speaking, Mount Hood Road in Brighton doesn’t exactly live up to its name, but while the tiny side street offers little in terms of hilliness, a mountain of controversy is growing over the proposed expansion of a senior citizens housing development there. Indeed, it is the size of the addition which has some residents spooked, with B’Nai Brith aiming to construct a nine-story, 42-unit structure at the rear of its existing Covenant House elderly complex.
“To build this monstrosity here is just unreal,” charged Ari Zacepitsky, who owns a condominium unit at 39 Mount Hood Road, located just a few feet from where the new structure is slated to be constructed. “It’s going to make life difficult for a lot of people.”
Zacepitsky was among several locals who converged on a Boston Redevelopment Authority hearing last Tuesday to argue against the plan, countering a group of Covenant House tenants bused in to voice support. Neighborhood activists such as Eva Webster criticized the expansion as being too intrusive for the 1.2-acre site, insufficient in providing needed parking and likely to exacerbate the density of one of Boston’s most congested neighborhoods. The three-story, 56-unit condo building in which Zacepitsky lives will be especially impacted, Webster said, predicting that the imposing brick wall will block the sun and eliminate any privacy residents have at present.
To the chagrin of the project’s critics, the BRA board subsequently voted unanimously to OK the expansion, leading to even more sentiment that the city was being unresponsive to Brighton residents. Zacepitsky charged that a BRA official had pledged a vote would not be taken that day, adding that he believes B’Nai Brith’s political connections and Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s desire to add to the housing stock produced under his administration superceded any specific project concerns.
“It all seemed to be predetermined,” Webster concurred. The BRA “heard our opposition, but they just ignored it.” She and others also said the review process was inadequate, with only a few public hearings and no community task force established as is customary in the Hub for major construction projects. The normal review process was also cut short because Covenant House is a so-called 121A development. Under that program, established in the 1960s as a way to promote investment in the city, local zoning is exempted, meaning that the BRA nod is the only go-ahead typically required.
Although the BRA said certified letters were sent out to numerous abutters, Zacepitsky said he and his wife did not receive one, and claimed other tenants in the building were left in the dark as well. The only way residents heard about the project was through a community association that leafleted the neighborhood last month, Zacepitsky said. “They’ve been very undemocratic,” he said of the BRA and B’Nai Brith. “It seems like this was a done deal months ago.”
‘Upset’ People
Brighton Allston Improvement Association member Theresa Hynes said she also feels the process was needlessly circumvented, questioning why another project on a much larger parcel across the street is being put through a full-blown review while the Covenant House is not. If Covenant officials were truly concerned with the neighborhood, they would have welcomed the increased scrutiny, Hynes said. Given that dozens of Allston-Brighton residents including herself spent several years revamping the neighborhood’s zoning in the early 1990s, Hynes said it is especially frustrating to see the guidelines which emerged from that effort being ignored.
“An awful lot of people are upset about this,” Hynes said.
BRA spokeswoman Meredith Baumann said the agency does sympathize with those impacted by the project, but insisted that adequate notification was made and that the public was given an opportunity to offer input early in the negotiations. Letters were sent to the Mount Hood Road condominium management association, she said, while legal notices and an advertisement were placed in local newspapers, she said.
“It’s unfortunate that [some residents] don’t think we did, but I do think we tried to involve the entire community,” she said. “We’re very confident that we did our part.”
Covenant House attorney Lawrence S. DiCara also defended the way the project was handled, estimating there were at least three public hearings over the past 10 months, and noting that the BRA board heard two hours of testimony last week prior to making its decision.
“That’s a significant public process,” DiCara maintained. Covenant House will not reconsider its proposal despite the outcry, he added, explaining that “we’ve already done everything that the city has said we should.” B’Nai Brith hopes to break ground on the estimated $6 million expansion by September.
As for the owners of the Mount Hood Road condominiums at 25-39 Mount Hood Road, DiCara claimed the impact would not be as imposing as is being cited by the addition’s critics. Most, if not all, of the condo owners likely bought their units after the Covenant House was constructed, he added, meaning that the owners should have been cognizant that such an expansion was possible. DiCara also asserted that the height of the expansion should not be an issue because “there have been tall buildings in Brighton for a long, long time.”
Hynes and Webster derided that outlook, charging that their community has become a magnet for large-scale development over the years while politically connected neighborhoods such as West Roxbury, Hyde Park and Jamaica Plain – where DiCara lives – have successfully blocked such projects. In acknowledging the need for increased elderly and low-income housing, Webster said Allston-Brighton is reaching the breaking point in that regard.
“Who says that all affordable housing has to be dumped on one part of the city?” she said. “The BRA should be expected to spread the burden evenly.”
As for Covenant House, Zacepitzky said he is unsure what the next action will be for him and other residents of the condominium. Given that he feels the city has ignored the pleas of its residents, the lifelong Brighton resident said he and his wife are even contemplating a move elsewhere, possibly down the street to Brookline “where zoning actually means something.”
“We do not want to live in Brighton anymore if this is the way it’s going to be,” Zacepitzky said. “It’s very frustrating.”
