Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center wins approval for new home on Old Road

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans for a new three-story home for the Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center on Old Road between Ellington Street and Michigan Avenue in Dorchester, basically to the rear of its existing facilities on Blue Hill Avenue.

The new building will consolidate all of the health center's medical and dental offices and exam rooms in roughly 42,3000 square feet of space. The ground floor will include a community room that the center hopes to use partly for such things as vaccination clinics but which will also be open for meetings by community groups.

David Valecillos of the Community Builders, which is working with Harvard Street on the project, said the need to move across the street is due to the current location being "in very poor condition." The new site consists of two vacant lots and a building owned by the health center.

Like the current main building on Blue Hill Avenue, the building will not have any dedicated parking for patients. However, unlike the current location, it will have dedicated space for patient drop offs and pick ups. Valecillos said many of the health center's clients arrive by public transportation. He said there is a bus stop right in front of the new location and that there are additional bus routes along Blue Hill Avenue.

Nobody spoke against the proposal.