Dorchester man gets a real charge out of zoning hearing

Cybah, he didn't buy one.
He wants to, but recognizes the practical needs AND is trying to go about it the right way.

Illegals conversions of yard to parking is nothing new in Boston.

I know of a front yard in Dorchester that was converted into two parking spaces several years ago. I lived in the building. The conversion was illegal but no one complained. It came to the attention of ZBA only when the building on the property was converted from rental units to condos. The building owner apparently had to get a variance in order to sell it as part of the deeds of two of the condos.

The variance was denied. But the owner was not required to remove the parking space and the parking spaces were sold as deeded parking spaces. Units were sold with the parking spaces and nothing was said.

I interpreted that as indicating that at the time the ZBA had no teeth and that the city government had no interest in following up on a denial such as this one.

That was over 10 years ago. From my experience of the past couple of years zoning appeals also take a year or more. This does not help homeowners. But then there is more than one city agency that is supposed to be supportive of homeowners but misses the mark in that goal.

I do not know whether this is changing in the Wu administration. But when Menino and Walsh were mayor, based on direct and various witness of various city functions, such as the assessors office and zoning, where and when city government related to individuals, city hall was often an unpleasant "partner" in owning a home.

That is Boston. How that works out in Chelsea is another question.

1. Standard hybrid -- never plugged in, generates electricity while running on gas and then uses that in conjunction with the gas (to reduce gas consumption).

2, Pure electric -- must be plugged in, can't run without a charged battery

3. Plug-in hybrid -- has a battery that can handle about 30 miles or so (depending on variety of car) of electric driving. When that is used up on longer trips, it acts like a standard hybrid. Can be plugged in (and should be when possible). One can charge these slowly using a minimum of special equipment (say 10-13 hours) or one can buy a more high powered charging unit (which can do the same job in 2 hours or so).

Your first reaction to this story is to cry "white privilege" because he chose to do the right thing first by asking for a variance and presenting his case to the zoning board? He hasn't even bought his desired car yet. To claim "white privilege" because he weighed his options and then went about it the legal way is just absurd. The guy didn't pave over his lawn and cut out a driveway in the curbing. That would be an act of privilege. This guy went about it the right way and presented his case compellingly. He did not assert "white privilege" to get his way.

You don't have to make exaggerated claims about the city's public works departments' slowness to show your disapproval of this ZBA variance. You can sell that story to suburbanites, but I use 311 all the time, through the app, and over the phone before that.

The city is fastidious about taking care of what they're able to take care of. I have had street lights and potholes I've reported fixed in under a week. If you have a problem like that, just report it. And then if you don't get action, contact your city councillors.

The city can't fix what it doesn't know. So tell them. If you don't get a satisfactory response, escalate. The city doesn't work if we don't work it.

EV's aren't a solution. They're just creating alternative pollution and space problems that are supposedly going to be "solved" by more pavement.

The people without the juice to get special treatment from the ZBA will wind up parking on the sidewalk and pedestrians will have to walk in the street.

Under no circumstances should anyone be putting a driveway in front of their house.

What a revolting development.

He didn’t insulate himself from community input and was conductive to their feedback.

It’s really good beer. I would consider the offer…

in Bitcoin.

They don’t have a parking lot. That belongs to the property next door.

1. That doesn't work that well on weekends; most people don't want to have to go into the office just to charge their car.
2. Depending on his daily work routine, he might not be at the brewery long enough on a regular basis to get a full charge.

Whereas, most people tend to be at their homes overnight and not using their car, so it's easy enough to leave it plugged in and charging.

A property owner might be able to argue that a curb constitutes an uncompensated taking, in the sense that it prevents access to the property from the public realm. Not sure how any of this works out in court, but it may well be that the competing interests offset one another.

Personally, I'd like to see all public use of the street for storage or access to private property be monetized. If my neighbor can park for free on public property in front of her house, why should I pay to park to park my car on private property in my drive way? My response is that we should both pay.