42-acre parcel of land on Dedham/Readville line could be ready for development by 2012

By adamg on Wed, 06/23/2010 - 5:42pm

Rob Villegas updates us on the status of the 5-Yard, an old railroad yard split equally between Boston and Dedham that the MBTA says will be clean enough to be build on by 2012.

Minor pesky problem: What to build on it? Dedham's half is zoned residential; Boston's is designated for industrial/commercial use. An earlier proposal for the land collapsed when the developer couldn't reconcile that and walked away.

Also kind of ironic: The T will use trucks to haul away contaminated soil (lead, arsenic and petroleum byproducts_ from the yard over the next year or so because it apparently couldn't reach agreement with CSX to use trains to remove the dirt from the yard, which has been a train yard since forever.

The parcel's not all that far away from the similarly split Stop & Shop warehouse. Remember when Boston wanted to annex that so a developer could put a huge residential project there?

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Comments

Burtman Iron Works was still

By NotWhitey on Wed, 06/23/2010 - 7:54pm.

Burtman Iron Works was still in there in the 1970s - I suspect that it was industry rather than the railroads that did most of the environmental damage over the years.

Residential, commercial AND

By J on Wed, 06/23/2010 - 10:35pm.

Residential, commercial AND industrial?

Yeah, it's called mixed used development. Why is this a problem?

Because of where the town line is

By adamg on Wed, 06/23/2010 - 10:48pm.

Dedham would get all the money-losing residential property (unless the entire thing is a retirement community); Boston would get all the money-making commercial property.

Dedham could easily fix that , no?

By Ron Newman on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 8:04am.

By rezoning it from residential to something else?

I'm not seeing how that's a

By HenryAlan on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 9:40am.

I'm not seeing how that's a problem. If it is zoned for residential in Dedham, build residential, with all kinds of shops and employment opportunities across the city line. Sounds like a win for Boston, and a non-issue for the developer. If Dedham has a problem with that, they can ask Ron Newman what to do.

Punt

By Sock_Puppet on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 9:18am.

Reading between the lines, it seems like Dedham won't play ball, so Boston is just going to punt.

Question: Is Dedham still planning on residential development going in there, and if so, shouldn’t the MBTA and AECOM now clean up the site to the standard required for residential use, as opposed to industrial/commercial? If not, the neighborhood would have to go through another cleanup all over again to meet the stricter clean up standard, even before any development were to begin.
Answer: no one knows exactly what Dedham plans. No one from the town of Dedham was in attendance. Currently it’s zoned residential. Whether they will entertain another use we don’t know. “That’s going to be Dedham’s call,” came the observation from one AECOM representative who was present.

Dedham won't let Boston have the land, Dedham won't participate in the cleanup, Dedham won't even let trucks carrying dirt go through Dedham. End result: Dedham will get a bunch of dirt they can't build on according to their current Residential zoning. Boston will only be able to build industrial or commercial. It's not exactly an exciting location for a mall. I'm thinking big MBTA vehicle parking lot for the foreseeable future.

Dedham should shit or get off the pot.

By anon on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 9:47am.

If they don't want any part of it, sell the land to Boston (Boston will make the money back in tax revenue.) This would benefit Dedham residents (aren't they looking for a new high school?), and allow for a complete development of the land.

I don't understand why they would want the status quo though.