More on BC Master Plan

Allston/Brighton Bullitan
Brighton residents ask BC for more timeScott Wachtler 20.DEC.07

Part of Boston College’s $1.6 billion growth and renovation plan seeks to alter Brighton’s landscape, and that has some in the neighborhood worried.

BC's 10-year master plan was submitted to the Boston Redevelopment Authority earlier in the month. Some Brighton residents felt that the timing of the submission would not allow them enough time to properly evaluate the plan.

Braving the snow, ice and the cold, Brighton’s BC Neighbors Forum came together for an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the plan. The mayor appointed, BC Task Force met the next day.

"Boston College has deliberately filed their master plan in the middle of December, on the first day of Hanukah, right before the Christmas holidays and New Year's in order to minimize resident participation and feedback," said Michael Pahre, facilitator of the BC Neighbors Forum.
Jack Dunn, BC spokesman said BC did take the holiday season into consideration and extended the comment period from 30 days to 45 days.

"They should show goodwill to the neighborhood by extending the comment period substantially to allow the neighborhood to respond," Pahre said.

As a result of the meetings, the BC Task Force voted to file a formal request to Thomas Keady, Jr., BC Vice President for Governmental and Community Affairs, asking that the comment period be extended so that the neighborhood could address the issues properly.

A letter from the BC Neighbors Forum was delivered to Jean Woods, Chair of the BC Task Force, asking them to hold a series of meetings that would address the issues of housing, athletic fields, traffic, transportation and open spaces. The Task Force is putting a plan together that aims to have weekly meetings for four weeks in January.

The Brighton portion of the 10-year master plan will add 30 new buildings, renovate eight more and create a new intersection while reconfiguring another one. The plan also includes the construction and reconfiguration of six playing fields.

According to Pahre, the plan that BC filed with the BRA doesn’t take the community’s concerns into consideration at all.

"BC put forward their ideas for this plan in the spring, presumably with the idea that they would get feedback from the neighborhood and change it," Pahre said. "They didn’t change it much in the end."

Alex Selvig, ran for the Allston-Brighton District 9 City Council seat in the last preliminary election. The issue of university expansion was a hot topic for all the candidates
"What it seems like is that BC has decided that it’s going to stand fast on part of the plan that they’ve been presenting to us for the entire year that I’ve been going to these meetings," Selvig said.

When the neighborhood saw the plans in the spring, the three biggest concerns dealt with the fact that in 10 years BC still wouldn’t be housing all of its undergraduate students on campus.
Neighbors are concerned that having too many undergrad college students in their neighborhoods would open the door for bad behavior.

"We have a big problem on football game days and on weekends when the kids are out partying," Selvig said. "It’s not to say that they’re all bad, but there’s a significant impact on the neighborhood."

Additionally, there is also concern about where the new dorms would be placed.
"There is broad neighborhood opposition for them to put any of those news dorms in the former seminary land," Pahre said.

Dunn wasn’t so sure that everyone in the neighborhood was against the idea of housing students on former seminary land.

"It depends who you ask," he said. "Residents of Cleveland Circle and other areas in Brighton strongly urged us to utilize the 65 acres we purchased from the archdiocese for undergraduate housing and they have born the brut of college students in their neighborhood for decades."
The BC plan would create 75 new beds and 40 parking spaces for graduate student housing on former seminary land on Foster Street.

The third major issue are the athletic fields, and in particular, the baseball stadium close to Lane Park.

"There are people whose houses will be extremely close to a 1,500 seat stadium. Plus they are proposing for additional fields, all which will have their lights on virtually year round," Pahre said.

Selvig said the stadium would only spread the problem of student partying further and bring noise and disruption throughout the neighborhood.

Dunn said according to the 10-year master plan, 92 percent of Boston College students will be housed on campus.

"That’s more than any other school in Boston. We think that is a significant accomplishment," Dunn said.

Kevin Carragee, a member of the BC Task Force, said it was possible for some of the dorms that BC is proposing to be built larger to accommodate more students.

"The new dormitories that they are proposing are four stories," Carragee said. "It strikes me, at best, that this is simply inadequate. There’s no reason these dormitories can’t be higher to house more students. There’s simply no reason for it. It’s just dogmatic."

Carragee suggested the new dorms should be six stories like the newest dorm that was built during the last master plan.

Dunn said that according to prevailing policies among universities nationwide, four story dorms, housing between 200 and 400 students, are more beneficial to intellectual enrichment and student formation.-
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