Rendering of proposed electronic billboard on Stuart Street
By adamg - 2/5/25 - 9:45 am

The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved plans by the Boch Center and a billboard company for an electronic billboard on Stuart Street that the center's CEO says will provide enough lease income to help it continue its programs in the community. Read more.

Proposed birthing center with illuminated birth lights
By adamg - 2/4/25 - 11:12 am

The Zoning Board of Appeal voted today to hold off any vote for at least three weeks on a proposed building that would house a birthing center and offices for five other non-profit groups at 14 Winthrop St. in Roxbury, so that organizers can hold more meetings with neighbors and a Roxbury community group to try to address neighbor concerns. Read more.

By adamg - 1/28/25 - 2:39 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal today rejected plans by the venerable Hatoff's on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain to add more gas pumps, after nearby residents fumed over what they said would be more pollution and noise from motorists filling their tanks with the cheap gas. Read more.

Rendering of proposed 5-story apartment building on Glenville Ave.
By adamg - 1/28/25 - 10:20 am

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by City Realty to add four stories and 14 apartments to the building where the Glenville Stops bar used to be at 85-93 Glenville Ave. in Allston. Read more.

Rendering of proposed new apartment building
By adamg - 1/14/25 - 1:09 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans for a 28-story, 400-unit apartment building at 100-102 Ipswich St. at the Bowker Overpass in the Fenway. Read more.

Rendering of new apartments and rebuilt former Baptist church
By adamg - 1/14/25 - 11:41 am

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans for 49 affordable apartments for senior citizens at 279-283 North Harvard St. in Allston, next to the former Hill Memorial Baptist Church, which will be turned into a " a programmed resident and community space." Read more.

Rendering of proposed apartments
By adamg - 12/10/24 - 2:19 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans for a four-story building with 26 affordable apartments to wrap around the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church at Humboldt Avenue and Waumbeck Street in Dorchester. Read more.

By adamg - 12/10/24 - 1:47 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal today un-did its denial last week of an investor's request to let him sell eight condos on Webster Street in East Boston because the "public notice" for that hearing referred to supposed violations of article 68 of the Boston zoning code, which covers South Boston, rather than article 53, which covers East Boston. Read more.

Queensberry Street proposal
By adamg - 12/10/24 - 12:16 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by the Fenway Community Development Corp. to replace a long closed laundromat at 112 Queensberry St. with an apartment building with 24 affordable units. Read more.

By adamg - 12/10/24 - 11:49 am

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by landlord City Realty to convert the former local home of the Ancient Mystical Order of the Rosy Cross - the Rosicrucians - at 13 Clevemont Ave., off Everett Street in Allston, into four apartments. Read more.

By adamg - 12/6/24 - 2:16 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal this week rejected a request by an Arizona real-estate investor to approve unapproved changes made by an earlier owner of an eight-unit condo building at 160 Webster St. in East Boston that went up in 2019 but remains unoccupied. Read more.

Rendering of proposed condo and pizza building
By adamg - 12/4/24 - 10:46 am

The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved plans by the owners of Spukies N Pizza at 1159 Washington St. at Dorchester Avenue in Dorchester to replace their building and parking lot with a four-story, 14-unit condo building - with ground-floor space for them to resume making pizzas and subs once construction is finished. Read more.

By adamg - 11/26/24 - 1:42 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal today unanimously approved plans by Jack Kelly III of Charlestown to open a dispensary at 31 Cambridge St., a short distance from an existing dispensary. Read more.

By adamg - 11/26/24 - 11:38 am

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by Richard and Adriana Travaglione to turn a small vacant building at 204 Hanover St., near Cross Street, in the North End into a new seafood restaurant and four studio apartments. Read more.

251-257 Washington St. rendering
By adamg - 11/26/24 - 10:35 am

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans to replace an old junkyard with a four-story, 48-unit apartment building at 251-257 Washington St. in Dorchester. Read more.

By adamg - 11/20/24 - 10:37 am

The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved a billboard company's plan to replace the rusted old billboards down the hill from the Madonna Queen of the Universe Shrine on Rte. 1A in East Boston with a double-sided electronic signboard, after hearing from residents and elected officials that the plan would remove a local eyesore and help fund the religious order that owns the property. Read more.

Map showing parts of the South End and surrounding areas that could flood in the future
By adamg - 11/19/24 - 7:17 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal today rejected a non-profit group's plans to convert a Shawmut Avenue office building into affordable apartments because it would have one apartment on the first floor despite being in Boston's coastal flood resilience overlay district, where residences are supposed to be higher than that in anticipation of flooding as sea levels continue to rise and storms become more fierce. Read more.

Rendering of proposed Cross Street expansion
By adamg - 11/19/24 - 12:22 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by serial North End restaurant owner Frank DePasquale to add a second floor to the vacant strip of storefronts on Cross Street between Hanover and Salem street so he can open a series of businesses keyed to Italian culture - including a cooking school to be run with an existing culinary institute in Italy, aimed at both people looking at restaurant careers and residents and even elementary-school students who just want to learn more about Italian cooking. Read more.

By adamg - 10/23/24 - 10:03 am

A Commonwealth Avenue resident whose condo backs up to the Newbury Street location of yet another proposed dispensary says the idea goes against city zoning codes and would help diminish the neighborhood and his property in so many ways, including through the generation of "noxious odors." Read more.

Map of East Boston Verizon cell-anntenna zones, with newest one in green
By adamg - 10/9/24 - 3:29 pm

The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved plans by Verizon to install 20 new cell antennas in four clusters atop an apartment building at 319-327 Chelsea St. in East Boston.