Tempers Flared in Brighton

Tempers flare as Boston College presents revisions to expansion plans in Brighton
By Matt Seidner, Correspondent
Allstton Brighton Tab
Thu Dec 04, 2008, 11:46 AM EST

Allston-Brighton - Update: A Boston College Task Force meeting previously scheduled for Dec. 9 has been cancelled. A new date has not yet been set.

Tempers flared at Wednesday night’s Boston College Task Force meeting as outraged residents denounced the college’s plans to build a new stadium complex and undergraduate dormitories close to their homes.

Most of the residents who attended were either members or supporters of Brighton Neighbors United, a group that fiercely opposes BC on its current housing and athletics plans. The handful of people who spoke out in support of the university quickly found themselves shouted down by the more vocal BNU members.

At the request of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, BC scaled back the details of its planned sports complex on the Brighton Campus. BC reduced proposals for a 1,500-seat baseball and 500-seat softball complex, to 1,000 and 300 seats respectively, in the version of the plan presented at the Wednesday, Dec. 3, meeting. The complex would host varsity practices from September to November from 3-7 p.m., and there would be at least 10 night games each for baseball and softball. Intramural teams would be able to use the fields from 3-9:30 every night but Saturday, when the park would close at 7.

One woman in the audience said the hours were too late for professionals and families who have to wake up early in the morning. Many more said that BC should remove the complex entirely. “The opposition is against the stadium, whether it is 1,000, whether it is 1,500,” said BNU member Maria Rodrigues.

BNU members passed out fliers showing that of the 600 letters written to the BRA during the June 2008 comment period on the plans, 90 percent were against building the stadiums.

Another hotly disputed issue of the night was BC’s plans for housing its undergraduate students. The university proposes a net increase of 940 beds, including 150 on the Brighton campus, and 560 beds in the recently acquired 2000 Commonwealth Ave. apartment building. The current plan would house 96 percent of students on-campus, and the BRA has requested the university study the impact of placing another 350 beds on either the Brighton or Chestnut Hill campus to reach 100 percent.

The vast majority of residents at the meeting demanded that the university house all undergraduate students on its main campus. The BNU analysis stated that 86 percent of letter-writers opposed building residences on former Archdiocese of Boston properties, and 82 percent were against using the 2000 Commonwealth Ave. building as a dorm. “We consider this an invasion into the residential area, and it was uncalled for,” task force member Terry Cohen said about the 2000 Commonwealth Ave. building.

Many attendees asked BC to replace the mods, campus residences built in the 1970s that were intended to be temporary, with a high-rise dorm instead of building smaller units in Brighton, a plan the institution appears to reject.

“The mods are as densely populated as we feel we can sustain,” said Jack Dunn, a university spokesman.

While schools such as Boston University and Northeastern choose to house students in high-rise buildings, BC prefers lower-density options that bring students closer to surrounding communities, according to BRA Chief Planner Kairos Shen. “I think the university wants to take a particular approach,” said Shen. In this case, the plan reflects the school’s reluctance to build large housing complexes. “I think they [BC] are trying to work with the city to find a compromise,” he said.

Shen added that, for the benefit of the neighborhood, he hopes to see headway soon. “The longer we argue on this, the longer that new dorms will not get built, and we’re prolonging the time before there will be relief in the neighborhood,” said Shen.

Still, many Brighton Neighbors United members show little intention of giving ground on this issue. “I feel really distressed that my lifestyle is being impinged upon because BC does not want a crowded campus,” said BNU member Lisa Lieberman.

The college maintained that it has already made many of the revisions the community requested. “We think that the plan that we have proposed is in the best interest of Boston College and the neighborhood of which we have been a part for 95 years, and we hope that we can reach a resolution so that we can proceed with the plan’s implementation,” Dunn said when asked if and when residents could expect to see more revisions.

For its part, the BNU isn’t budging. “This is 15, maybe 10 percent of the plan where we have to fight you; we don’t want to, but we have to,” said member Alex Selvig.