Dorchester Lower Mills to get pizza topped with condos

The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved plans by the owners of Spukies N Pizza at 1159 Washington St. at Dorchester Avenue in Dorchester to replace their building and parking lot with a four-story, 14-unit condo building - with ground-floor space for them to resume making pizzas and subs once construction is finished.

Stavros and Theodora Retzos opened Spukies - named for a once common pointy-ended Boston sub roll - in 1997. Their proposal is meant to leave a legacy for their family, on a lot that is appropriately shaped like a slice of pizza, their attorney, Nicholas Zozula told the board.

The proposal calls for six residential parking spaces, a Washington Street curb cut of 12 feet, down from the current 22, and the planting of several street trees along both Washington Street and a private way that runs along one side of their property, he said.

He added that two of the units would be sold as affordable. The couple's architect, Derek Rubinoff, added that all 14 units would be handicap accessible.

The building would go next to an apartment building that would transform the site of the Metamorphosis convenience store.

The project required variances because the proposed building would not meet the lot's zoning for minimum number of parking spaces and "open space" for residents and was closer than allowed by zoning to a side boundary. Zozula said the project deserved variances because of the lot's unusual triangular shape and because of its slope.

The board approved the project unanimously, pending the signing of a formal agreement on the two affordable units and a design review by the Boston Planning Department.

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