Members of the Gove Street Citizens Association (GSCA) voted 32-12 against a housing development at 168 Gove St.
The plan is to take an existing multifamily home in need of repairs and updating on the corner of Gove and Geneva Streets and change the occupancy from four to eight units, add a vertical addition and roof deck and completely renovate the existing building.
“These units are ranging in size and are a mix of one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom units and this will continue as a rental building,” said Attorney Richard Lynds of his client’s plans. “There’s no intention to convert these to condos and homeownership after it’s concluded. This building is relatively old. It was built in the early part of the 1900s. But again, while it is designed very well from a structural standpoint, it can certainly use upgrades.”
Since previous meetings with the community and abutters, Lynds said his client reduced the size of the roof addition and dramatically reduced the size of the proposed penthouse apartment. His client also added some design elements to soften the addition.
“One of the changes that we made based upon the comments that we heard from abutters was to incorporate windows so the entire penthouse level is pretty open on all sides, which allows for the look to be a little bit more transparent,” said Lynds
While some had concerns pertaining to the size, scope and scale of the building the meeting’s question and answer session was dominated by members of the housing advocacy group Vida Urbana, aka City Life. Members argued that the project could displace the residents currently living there.