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Oops: Small Forest Hills project halted
By adamg on Sun, 06/05/2016 - 5:15pm
On Friday, an ISD inspector slapped a stop-work order on one of the fences outside the former Yang's Martial Arts Academy on Hyde Park Avenue because the contractor never got a permit to demolish the building it demolished.
UPDATE: Developer says ISD issued all the relevant permits months ago, that ISD only issued the order because it misplaced them and that work has started again today. See the comments for more.
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Comments
how serious is this?
This seems ... ummm ... bad for the developer but I don't know ISD and code stuff. Taking down a building without an OK seems like something the city would sorta frown upon.
Is this a "no big deal" thing where the contractor gets a slap on the wrist, pulls a permit and starts up again?
Or did this just trigger a minor armageddon where the owner, developer and contractor are all gonna be tied up dealing with hearings, punishment and maybe civil action?
He started bringing in
He started bringing in different crews every time he'd get shut down. Each crew had no idea that the last had been stopped by the city.
Probably nothing will happen, because you know, it's Forest Hills and we're only allowed to complain about the Casey Arborway project disaster.
Doesn't the contractor pull
Doesn't the contractor pull the permit? (Not the developer)
Not sure about Boston but in
Not sure about Boston but in Somerville work done without permits requires you to pay double the original permit fee.
And if you've done, say, plumbing without a permit, and closed up your walls you have to open them up again and let the inspector see what you've done.
This actually happened
This actually happened several weeks ago, after multiple incidents of Weld Hill Street being blocked off by construction vehicles, different construction crews being brought in by the owner, damage/nuisance to the neighboring properties, pedestrian access being removed, ongoing blocking of fire hydrants, and just all-around terribleness.
And it actually took at least 3 different reports being filed with the city for them to shut it down. Coincidentally, they had a detail cop at one point, who was allegedly there for the construction, but they never actually had any permits.
This was by far the most bs, frustrating situation, and is now a giant hole. Literally. With a bunch of trash and machinery and equipment left in it. It's almost funny, except that it's disgusting.
But why?
If the new building is up to code, approved, compliant w/ zoning, it's so weird he wouldn't follow the process.
As a neighbor, are you against this space being redeveloped or just the apparently dodgy way it was handled? I don't know much about this project but it doesn't seem like a big impact project, like say the development across the street past Ukraine Way.
There's something familiar about this
So I have to ask - Who is the developer?
City Realty
I'm not familiar with them, but a search of the assessors database/Mass Sec. of State corporations database shows that the developer is City Realty, who I'm not familiar with. Maybe some others here are? They seem to have made the news in the past, per Google.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/03/19/investors-and-tenants-od...
Edit
Interestingly enough, upon further review I am familiar with City Realty... I rented an apartment in JP from them about 5 years ago. Pushy, but didn't seem out of the norm.
Not the one I had in mind
I've heard of them but never rented from or had business with them. It wasn't the developer I thought it might be. Turns out, as the comment below clarifies, it was all just a big misunderstanding...
Temporary Miscommunication
Hi Adam and all,
I work for the developer of this site, City Realty.
This was just a temporary misunderstanding. For some reason, ISD couldn't find the demo permit in their system. But we do have a fully signed off demo permit dating back to early February as well as underpinning, trenching, and foundation permit from months ago.
We met with the building inspector this morning and the stop work order has been removed.
We're excited to be getting back to work.
So which crew was allowed to
So which crew was allowed to come back, or did another get hired for this time around? It's been almost 6 weeks since the first shut-down, so I wasn't sure if you'd had changes.
I hope it wasn't the crew that threatened me for asking about permits. I didn't want to call the cops, I just got lucky that you got your shut down order the next day.
I also hope you've decided to keep your things off of surrounding properties, to not block the fire hydrant, to consider the implications of shutting off a one-way road without warning during rush hour, and to at least post if you plan on parking commercial vehicles in residential spots. I'm also hoping you don't damage our vehicles with your horrible attempts to 'fence in' the building zone.
Lastly, please don't hurt the cat. It's a nice cat, and idk if he's taken up permanent residence in the weeks of neglect, but he didn't do anything wrong. He's kind of the redeeming quality of the pee-pit as it currently stands.
And if you're a new developer, which I really hope you are, I'm excited to see how this progresses.