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Condo developer wants to do some carpet cleaning in Hyde Park
By adamg on Mon, 11/10/2014 - 11:46am
Architect's rendering.
The BRA holds a meeting Wednesday on a $6-million proposal to turn the old Superior Carpet Cleaning building at 1580 River St. into a three-story, 32-unit condo building.
The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Hyde Park Community Center, 1179 River St.
Developer Anthony Ruscito of Randolph is proposing to add a third floor to the building and a total of 52 parking spaces, split between a basement garage and a parking lot. All of the units would be either one or two bedrooms, with four set aside as "affordable" units.
He proposes to start construction next spring.
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Comments
Suburban design
Too much parking! What is this Woburn?
Er, have you ever been down that way?
It's pretty much as close to exurban as you get in Boston. They've got goose-crossing signs, even.
Just so you know the T is not
Just so you know the T is not available 24-7 and cover every square mile in the commonwealth. I grew up using the T because it was readily available and convenient for me to get from my house to....school and a part time job I had downtown. The more further away you're from the city the demand for having a car increases.
Parking is Codified
Much of the building parking spaces throughout the city is codified in the local zoning regulations.
Roslindale, for example, re-did their zoning a few years back and now builders must supply 2 spaces per dwelling/apartment. If they cannot, they require a waiver from the Zoning Board of Appeal and give reasons why.
So the number of spaces is actually less assuming Hyde Park/Mattapan's zoning were similar. 32 units X 2 spaces each = 64 spaces. They are only planning for 52, so a ZBA waiver is likely on the table. Much depends on what the local zoning regs say now.
You cannot assume this will be TOD or be sold as TOD. The bus that services this area does not run that frequently.
If I recall right, Hyde Park
If I recall right, Hyde Park is 2 spaces per dwelling unit except around Cleary Square where it's 1.
As Adam said, this parcel is fairly off the beaten trail transit-wise, so I'm not going to fret about it.
Hopefully there will be other, much more transit oriented proposals close to Cleary Square.
On the fence about this
It's somewhat close to the readville commuter rail stop....so somewhat t accessible to down town. Facade is boring but the biggest question is will people buy condos in this area? I'd bet the neighborhood will fight it!
That's good for some kind of
That's good for some kind of trips but it's not really the kind of transit that inspires people to go car-light or car-free. You really want something that runs frequently all day (e.g. the 32), with options for other directions, and it's also good to have a healthy mix of nearby businesses for day-to-day stuff.
So, suburban apartment complex is probably the best this project can shoot for. Personally, it's not the type of location that I find interesting, but I'm sure that there's some folks out there who would find it reasonable.
Will the neighborhood fight it? Well, sadly, probably yes. As some other comments have shown, there are some people who hate for the sake of hating. Condos are just one way of legally dividing up land ownership, but for whatever reason, there are people out there who hate anything that's not a single-family home on a huge lot. Probably has to do with class warfare issues: they don't want you in their neighborhood if you can't afford a big home on a big parcel.
Sad that it's 2014 and yet it's still considered socially acceptable to behave childishly like that.
I think on the other side of
I think on the other side of the Mother Brook, neighbors would be more likely to fight it. This address is in no-man's land between Readville and Cleary Square, between houses, apartments, a rundown mill building, a fence company, and a DCR maintenance yard. I'm a few blocks away, not right across the street, but I'd support this development.
It's a little far to walk to either the Readville MBCR stop or the 32 bus, and there isn't a strong transit oriented culture in this hood. They need parking to sell the units.
"affordable" units
Great news!
If you make too little money, you get a nice apartment.
If you make too much money, you get a really nice apartment.
If you make between these two...well F-you.
No one who says things like
No one who says things like this will bother to read the responses, but I guess I'm a martyr like that.
Affordable housing != low-income housing != section 8 housing.
Eligibility for affordable housing depends on a lot of things, the most important of which is the designation of category of affordability of the housing in question. That distinction hasn't been made here yet, but it's probably safe to say that it will follow the pattern that the BRA has established in other, similar properties: the plurality will be at the 80% AMI category. The rest will be at 100% or 120%. At 80%, that means that a family of four could make, at most, $75,300 and have liquid assets (not including retirement accounts and education savings accounts) more than $75,000. At 120%, they can't make more than $112,900.
Are you really complaining about the lack of housing opportunities available to families making six figures, more than twice the median income of the country? Or do you just not know what you're talking about?
Spoken like someone who makes
Spoken like someone who makes a bunch of money working at a "non-profit" who has never actually tried to apply for affordable housing.
So when the 'affordable'
So when the 'affordable' units are sold later, will it have to be for an 'affordable' price?
I ate some carpet last night
I ate some carpet last night ...
Relax
This city needs to relax with the condos, Hyde Park is a neighborhood for families NOT yuppies
A family can't live in a
A family can't live in a condo? Tell that to all my neighbors with kids.
Not all families in Boston
Not all families in Boston are wealthy enough to be able to own a single family home, and some families do not want to be renters forever so condos are the best option.
Density
Density leads to lower home prices for everyone including families. If you're saying that they should be building larger condos (1500-2000 sq. ft. with 3+ bedrooms), then that's a different topic.
But you weren't, were you?
Also, check out the history of a local building tradition called a triple decker sometime. I think a lot of families have lived in those.
good point about tripleDs...
prettty successful type for many folks...now can't afford 'em in JP!
Ppssshaw
An unfortunate side-effect of draconian mandatory yuppie vasectomy laws....get over yourself, you don't superfluous space to raise a kid.
being a hyde park resident...
...dang, I'd be happy to see something/anything renovated in this neighborhood and not be fought...it's not fancy but would be an upgrade to the existing facade. less housing construction = higher costs citywide
$6 million for 32 units
That's less than 200k per unit, something anybody making over $50k can easily afford - exactly what the city needs. Housing for honest working folks, not million dollar yuppie glass boxes and taxpayer-supported luxury townhomes for the welfare crowd.
housing
ok, no comment on affordability, parking or whatever. Build housing exclusively for left-handed Lithuanian women who earn exactly $45,001 a year, but please, PLEASE ... IN THE NAME OF GOD MAKE THE UGLY STOP!!
Did somebody kill every architect in Boston?? You could probably hold a competition of kids at local High Schools to design better looking buildings than what is being produced around here ferchrissakes.
All you funky framed-glasses wearing, effete architects need to step up your game. You suck. (Are developers just getting their kids to learn SketchUp and produce these damn renderings in between rounds of World of Warcraft?)
This is how it works.
This is how it works. Architect draws something nice. Developer takes design to contractor. Contractor says $$$$$$$$$$$$ when developer only wants to pay $$$. Architect redesigns to cost $$$.
Well, they're trying to
Well, they're trying to recycle a building that has to be one of the ugliest in the city. It's an improvement over what's there now.
Ugly
Yes, but also affordable. Not everyone here is a trust funder or hedge fund manager who's willing to pay millions for some designer shitbox.
designer shitboxes
that's sort of the point. Even the fancy, so-called "high-end" developments have been pretty butt-ugly. Have you seen the caja de kaka they put up on the East Boston waterfront?? They put a squat, utility building on the water-side of the building! The whole thing looks like a shoe-box, and they want good money for the best units. Those units have a great view of the city but everyone else has a view of an ugly, boring piece of crap (in my outraged opinion).
And no, I can't design anything much better. Nor can I direct film, but that doesn't make Adam Sandler movies any better.
Improvement!!!
Finally someone is doing something to improve that area and investing in Hyde Park. Maybe some of those neighboring businesses will get inspired to clean up their buildings as well.