Four Proposals for 1501 Commonwealth Avenue

Four developers make proposals for Commonwealth Avenue
Bullitan
Scott Wachtler 27.MAR.08


BRIGHTON — The city’s Department of Neighborhood Development hopes that the second time will be the charm for four new proposals to develop 1501 Commonwealth Ave. in Brighton.

Last year, the community rejected the four proposals shown on the basis that none of them were a good fit for the area.

John Feuerbach, a DND senior Development officer, unveiled the four new proposals last week to a sparsely attended community meeting held at the Jackson Mann Community Center.

Most of the audience was made up of developers ready to pitch their proposals, local politicians or their representatives and a handful of the regular cadre of Allston-Brighton community activists.

The meeting started a half hour late in hopes that more people would arrive.

"Sorry for the delay," Feuerbach said. "These are not the numbers of neighborhood representatives we were intending."

Feuerbach said the DND was committed to finding a developer that the community was comfortable with and if it took a couple of meetings to find that developer they were willing to hold more meetings.

The proposals came from the Allston Brighton CDC, B’nai B’rith Housing New England, the Brighton Partnership for Community Reinvestment and the New Atlantic Development Corp.

This was the second time The Allston Brighton CDC and B’nai B’rith Housing New England has made proposals for the development of the property.

All proposals accounted for mixed income units of either low-income, or market rate housing. The proposal from B’nai B’rith included units for middle income housing.

All units will be built to the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. All are rated in the Silver range of certification.

Each developer was given 15 minutes to pitch their proposal to and then given 10 minutes to answer questions from the audience.

The Allston-Brighton CDC drew upon their existing relationship with the Allston-Brighton Community. Their plan for the site is for a five-story building with four stories of housing and a one-story garage. Eight units are proposed for one bedroom, 23 units for two bedrooms and nine three bedrooms. Twenty-one units are set aside as affordable housing while 19 will be available at market rate.

Alex Selvig, a former candidate who ran last year for Allston Brighton’s City Council seat, commended the developers for including the most three bedroom units in their proposal.

"The three-bedroom units would help to bring families back to Allston-Brighton. I’m glad to see you’re committed to that," Selvig said.

Local activist Eva Webster was concerned that the plan didn’t include enough parking, but representatives from the Allston Brighton CDC said that the parking was standard for what the city asks.

B’nai B’rith Housing New England’s proposal relied heavily on their track record of developing mixed income housing and their highest ratio of parking spaces to bedrooms of all the proposals. They offer a five-story building with 39 one-bedroom units and 13 two-bedroom units. Twenty units would be set aside for low-income buyers, 15 for middle income buyers and 17 units would be offered at market rate. Representatives stressed that their proposal was the only one that included the middle income tier and that the building they proposed would draw on the architectural style of the buildings within the neighborhood.

Webster questioned the size of the bedrooms and questioned whether the apartments would be used for elderly housing — a complaint that was brought up at the last proposal meeting.

"These are small units," Webster said. "I get the feeling that you’re warehousing people and doing a disservice to the community by not being family friendly."

The proposed size of the one bedroom units are 700 square feet and the size of the two bedroom units are 850 square feet.

Harry Mattison, another local activist, worried that the units would be attractive to students. Representatives from B’nai B’rith said their experience with building similar housing at 33 Commonwealth in Newton hasn’t shown that to be the case.

Selvig questioned whether B’nai B’rith was truly committed to the community since the community tried to get the 33 Commonwealth Ave. building scaled down.

Representatives from B’nai B’rith said that they did listen to the community’s concerns about the building and did end up scaling the property down.

The next proposal came from the Brighton Partnership for Community Reinvestment. Their proposal centered on the beauty of the new building and even went so far as to name the property, Charing Cross, after a section of London.

"We wanted to do something nice to look out from, but also nice to look at," Merrill Diamond said.

Their proposal offered the highest percentage of market-rate units and offered the most parking. The six-story building would contain housing on four stories and two for a garage. They propose 49 two-bedroom units and eight one-bedroom units. Nineteen units would be set aside for affordable housing and 38 available for market rate housing.

The Brighton Partnership for Community Reinvestment proposal also included community benefits, such as money to clean the median in front of the building, money to upgrade the nearby park and an apprenticeship program during the construction. The proposal also includes a program that would set aside .33 percent of any sale to be used at the community’s discretion.

The New Atlantic Development Corp’s proposal focused on environmental sustainability and included the most ecologically friendly building. While most of the proposals included options for solar panels, New Atlantic’s, incorporated other sustainable options. Roof drains are designed to retain rainwater into collection tanks in order to water gardens and heat recovery ventilation systems that are efficient in minimizing energy use.

Four stories of the five-story building will be used for housing, while one story would be reserved for parking. They propose three, one-bedroom units, 39 two-bedroom units and eight three-bedroom units. Half of the units will be available as affordable housing while the other half will be sold at market rate. The proposal also includes the largest square footage per room of any of the other proposals.

Selvig said he was very impressed with the environmental sustainability of the proposal, while Webster said she felt the proposal was under-whelming for the area.

Another woman in the audience was worried whether the proposal’s new ideas would be a problem in the future when it comes to maintaining the property.

"There is no untried technology being put to use here," Peter Roth, president of New Atlantic Development Corp said. "The rainwater collection tanks would need to be drained in the winter and the solar panels would need to be cleaned from time to time."

After the meeting Selvig was positive about many of the proposals, but especially New Atlantic’s.

"I would love to live in a building like this," he said while looking over the buildings details. It would be great if we had more land sites available for development because it’s important that we find ways of bringing families back to the Allston Brighton area."

- The Bulletin Newspapers