Boston Pull a Quickie, Be Prepared

On Tuesday morning, I was informed by members of my community that a developer was requesting a variance from the City of Boston, on a property in our area of Highland Park at 9:30 am- now it's 30 minutes before the hearing was suppose to occur- SHUCKS! So I changed, jumped on my bike, and sped down to City Hall Rm. 801

Community Concern
By the sheer nature of informing me that a variance was being requested from the (Planning and Zoning [Zoning Board of Appeals])ZBA, it predicates that there was something we(Highland Park area residents and PRC) were not aware of in the development plans for this project. One of two things occurred 1) the developer never informed us of the details that actually violated zoning regulations 2) they changed the plans without letting us know. What does this mean?

FYI every neighborhood

Every neighborhood and community should ask fundamental questions before giving developers the ok on projects in their neighborhood: are there any zoning violations of any sort and if so what are they. By being informed about those violations you communities can either determine how they want the developer to proceed, what changes they expect, and make a request for the developer to resubmit the plans.

Back to the snow job the members of the ZBA, City council representatives, and Neighborhood Representatives of the Mayors office pulled. First let it be known, I am not angry, I think this was all very clever- but rest assured I will not allow the same events to occur again.

Not knowing exactly what the violations were I asked the neighborhood representative for my area from the Mayors office what changes if any were being made in these plans. He did not know. But he did know that the Mayors office as well as four other city councilors were supporting this project. In all fairness, the neighborhood representative did point out the developer and DND person I should talk to. I spoke to them and they errored by presuming that I was not a resident when this decision was made; I quickly retorted by stating I have live in the neighborhood over 40 years- I don't think so. Then they said no changes were made. Ok. But the fact still remained that they were there for a reason of overriding a violation. What I could not seem to get as was the reason- at least not yet.

So I continued to pursue a conversation with the filing clerk from the ZBA to see if I could get a document identifying the violations. He hesitated probably realizing that my inquiry might serve as a roadblock. That was not my objective. However if in fact the development violations were not discussed or presented to my community Highland Park Project Review Community, I was prepared to oppose this development for the mere fact that we want to make sure that this project does not distort agreements that are important to preserving the integrity of the community.

So the developer is called after several other cases are heard; and lightening fast, several municipal bodies(mentioned earlier) concurrently call out their support for this project in it's current form. The chair of the ZBA asks about opposition and I indicated that my opposition was that the developer did not submit these violations to the HP PRC and if in fact these plans were different than what we approved; we were misinformed, or they espoused to do something other than what we agreed on, violations I would not support this development based on these violations. Otherwise I had not objections.

The ZBA approved a variance for the project and is authorized to violate the following zoning codes
1. Article 10, sec. 1 Limitation of Area of Accessory Use
2. Article 50 section 29 floor area ration excessive
3. Article 50 section 29 front yard insufficient (50-44.2 conformity with existing building alignment)
4. Article 50 section 29 rear yard insufficient

After the ZBA's approval, the ZBA filing clerk sent an assistant or intern (not sure which) on the task of making a copy of the appeal document which held the violation on it. Very curious how accessible the document was right after the variance was approved. Overriding articles should be a concern for any community.

I am presently investigating their community compliance process. I understand why people might get angry at such a process. I myself would rather understand it and be strategic about addressing the issue going forward to ensure compliance. I am happy to take questions and comments I have a copy of Article 50 which can be very useful to increase understanding. My advice, know what your concerns are before developers come to your neighborhood from a technical aspect not from just a culturally appropriate fit.