The Forest Hills T Station. The BRA would like to see the six parcels around the station developed in the near future.
It is a project that the Boston Redevelopment Authority director John Palmeri claims is the most important in the city. More important than the stagnant Columbus Center, infamous Tommy’s Tower, and the long delayed South Station Tower project.
Palmeri is talking about the development of six parcels in Jamaica Plain near the Forest Hills MBTA Orange Line station. While there is no official plan submitted yet, the community is currently putting together a set of guidelines that would help control any proposals for the site.
This process has been going on for about a year and a half, and has been dubbed as the Forest Hills Improvement Initiative (FHII). In a rare occurrence, Palmeri attended the most recent FHII meeting (on June 26), which was supposed to be the final meeting. However, after new concerns regarding height, safety, density, and public infrastructure were raised, the process was extended.
A sticky issue that has arisen also has the two people fighting for the Second Suffolk seat in the senate (Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and Sonia Chang-Diaz) in disagreement. In the current guidelines, the project going up on these parcels must have 50 percent affordable housing. The main concern on both sides seems to be about whether or not this figure is balanced. Sen. Wilkerson wrote a letter that stated she had “grave concerns about the 50 percent.” On the other side of the, Chang-Diaz has stated that she fully believes that the 50 percent figure is indeed balanced and would only help increase the diversity in the surrounding community.
Neither candidate has been particularly active in the FHII process, but both have claimed to have spoken with residents and BRA about the matter. Chang-Diaz has said that she has been to one of the eight meetings.
Other figures in the guidelines call for 400 residential units and 64,000 square feet of retail space. Those are only for three of the six parcels however, as the plan is to only sell three to interested developers. An additional 300 residential units could be built if all six of them were developed, but the BRA currently does not intend to sell two of the parcels – the Fitzgerald parking lot and the Arborway Yard. Another difficult restriction is the fact that the MBTA wants to maintain a minimum of 240 commuter parking spaces on site, which will almost certainly require the construction of a parking garage.
Public infrastructure improvements may cause some issues with the parcels as well, as residents would like to see significant improvements. Some ideas include improving signalization in the area (a process that has already begun and is showing improvements, according to the Boston Transportation Department) and making the road that travels around the Forest Hills Station a one-way loop. Pedestrian improvements under the Casey Overpass have also been proposed.
Unfortunately, many of the infrastructure improvements listed above would fall on the shoulders of developers, a heavy cost that many may not want to deal with.
Two more FHII meetings have been scheduled, one for August 13, and another for September 16.
Source: Jamaica Plain Gazette
Filed under: Boston, Infrastructure, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, Mixed-Use, Proposal
