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Suburban-style apartment complex with tons of parking and a clubhouse proposed for American Legion Highway on Hyde Park/Roslindale line
By adamg on Thu, 03/11/2021 - 10:49pm
A Dallas developer says it will soon file plans to build 270 apartments in nine low-slung buildings on the Hyde Park side of the Stop & Shop/Walgreens strip mall on American Legion Highway.
In a letter of intent filed with the BPDA today, the Lincoln Property Company says its proposal for the 14-acre site will include 455 parking spaces - as well as a clubhouse, an outdoor pool and a dog park and playgrounds for residents.
All of the buildings would be two or three stories, all of the units would have either one or two bedrooms. The company says that because the parcel is so large, it will not need to win any variances from the zoning board. However, its size means it will require BPDA meetings and approval.
The heavily wooded site, roughly two blocks from Hyde Park Avenue, is currently owned by the Jubilee Christian Church, International, of Mattapan and is at the base of Barry's Ledge, where a quarry once provided stones for use by the Boston Elevated Railway.
In more recent decades, the top of the hill sported tall towers meant to hold netting for a driving range that never opened. The towers came down after what was then NStar bought that land.
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Comments
20 units per acre
It's not too bad, but this sounds like it's going to plow down all the trees and put down as much pavement as possible, because every unit needs two parking spaces or no one will want to live a five minute walk from a high-frequency bus line and not drive everywhere.
I guess I'd rather keep the open space and build 270 apartments on top of a T stop but we can't have nice things.
It's two blocks from Hyde Park Avenue
Which, last I checked, has one of the most heavily used bus routes in the city. In fact, there's a stop right at the corner of ALH and HPA. Map.
Demand
It will be interesting to see if these and all other newly built apartment are full in five years, does anyone know what the current vacancy rate is across Boston? I guess it's a positive they aren't " luxury" apartments.
They will be filled
One way or another, they will be filled. If the market is "soft" they'll knock 10% off the price/rent.
There has been a shortage of housing in the Boston area since before the American Revolution. Read the pre-revolutionary letters where people were complaining about this even back then.
The more housing which is built, the more people will have homes, and the stronger the economy will be.
If they don't fill up, they
If they don't fill up, they'll have to lower the price until they do. That's the whole point of building more - to supply enough to meet or exceed demand, so that prices can stabilize or lower.
What's great is the last year has had a huge impact on apartment prices because the demand dropped with COVID, so it reset pricing in a lot of ways. New buildings continuing to open + landlords having to work their way back up, pricewise, from pandemic lows, is GREAT news for anyone who doesn't want to pay 3k a month.
My point exactly
…
Busy and not well scheduled
The #32 is known for failing to provide enough frequent service to accommodate the ridership. People in the last 1.5 miles approaching Forest Hills on inbound trips often find themselves having to wait 1-2 more buses before they can actually board. Over-crowding on outbound trips in the afternoon face similar issues. In fact if you need to get off in that first 1.5 miles you had better get yourself near a door otherwise you won't be able to squeeze yourself off at your stop.
Just because new housing will be added nearby does not automatically make the MBTA add more service to bus routes.
What has been needed for some time.... years ??.... is some kind of loop bus on the #32 that serves this 1-2 mile stretch.
The developer is correct to accommodate parking as planned and they have the land to do it.
Oh yeah... the #14 goes by there as well, but that runs every millennium or so, and don't expect the MBTA to add a stop there either. The one on that stretch of road doesn't even serve the Stop & Shop well. The stop is down by Walgreens.
I guess
You're basically saying we should force a private land owner to keep a woodland for your enjoyment at no cost to you?
There are long term costs of
There are long term costs of removing all the tree canopy in a neighborhood as well
Is this a joke?
"removing all the tree canopy in a neighborhood"?
In Hyde Park?
In Massachusetts?
Some of the most wooded areas you will come across?
Also, most of this land isn't canopy whatsoever it's totally open space. A field. Stop the nonsense
Trees won't be the problem
Trees won't be the problem. This was a former rock quarry area and much of that land under the topsoil is ledge rock, known all to well for Radon Gas deposits. Radon can be cancerous. The question is whether the developer knows this and will build in mitigation systems to deal with it. Forget basements. They will hit solid rock not far below the surface.
Well
It didn't sound he was about to chain himself to the backhoe to stop the project.
An Urban canopy is important. If they can build taller building and have less parking so that the trees stay and there's just as many units, that's a net positive.
You forget the canopy in
You forget the canopy in Stony Brook.
Fun fact
Massachusetts is among the states with the most trees in the country. Not relevant per se to this topic but something I read a couple weeks ago and found interesting. - scauma
Gee, Ari!
Who paid you to say that?
Gee, Ari!
N/t
In Charlestown some tree
In Charlestown some tree activists are trying to stall a mega-project because it involves cutting (and replacing) some 250 trees in order to rebuilt 1000+ units of decrepit affordable housing and add over 1500 units of market rate housing.
It would be great if these folks could shift their attention to the number of trees that will have to be taken down (and never be replaced) in order to provide those 455 parking spaces.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/07/metro/developers-may-have-remove-...
Unlike Charlestown, Hyde Park
Unlike Charlestown, Hyde Park has Stony Brook.
They are only important to people when they are MY trees
People in Hyde Park aren't likely to get in an uproar about trees in Charlestown, nor vice versa.
This is in addition to the
This is in addition to the 500, 300 + apartments being planned for the Readville station area. All in a residential area of single family homes. I hope the city plans on showering Hyde Park with support services to help with the future over crowding problem.
These developments are 3 miles apart
I think they will not affect each other.
An overcrowding problem in an
An overcrowding problem in an area filled with single family homes?
Huh?
They won't. See South Boston
They won't. See South Boston. Thousands of new residents. No new infrastructure. Streets are a mess too.
Private property storage on
Private property storage on public streets is more important than infrastructure dummy.
dupe
dupe
The only possible crowding problem...
Would be on the 32 bus, a few years from now.
Fortunately, the enlightened leaders in City Hall are studying/proposing a fully-separated bike lane for Hyde Park Avenue, leaving 1 lane of travel (plus 1 turn lane at major intersections) and 1 lane of parking. I'm sure that'll do so much good for the 32...
Playgrounds
I'm sure the families living in all those 1- and 2-bedroom apartments will have tons of kids to fill those playgrounds.
Millenials aren't having
Millenials aren't having multi-children families. Two beds is plenty.
Good. Pre-pandemic, I rode
Good. Pre-pandemic, I rode the 32 bus from Wolcott to FH and it is one of the most rode bus lines. We do need more apartments. People are bemoaning the "small town feel" of Hyde Park but we live in a city.
Parking included in rent
I wonder if the developer sees an ability to increase rent if parking is included.
A $200 per month higher rent would result in almost $650,000 in revenue.
For those that need a car in Boston, this would be short money.
In theory yes
However, it sounds like they will have PLENTY of parking. If I look out my apartment window and see 20 open spaces, I'm going to be tempted to simply use one of those spots and tell the landlord where to put his bill for $200. (And then he's got to monitor parking and hire a tow truck and deal with ME when I get towed and come blazing into his office saying, "WTF?")
Sounds like it would be easier to just tell everyone that parking is free and silently include parking in the slightly higher rent.
That is what I would expect
That is what I would expect the approach to be. They can charge $200++ amonth higher rent than other units without parking.
The developer still gets the extra money and higher real estate value.