By Michael Coughlin Jr.
A sizeable majority of those in attendance at the monthly Orient Heights Neighborhood Council (OHNC) meeting on Wednesday, June 21, voted in opposition to a redevelopment project at the site of the old New England Casket Company at 1141 Bennington Street.
The proposal is to create a transit-oriented residential development that would include 220 units and 128 parking spaces at the site where the New England Casket Company was destroyed during a fire in 2019.
During the meeting, the project team once again presented to the OHNC, this time to discuss concerns that had been raised about the proposal and to inform attendees of the mitigation strategies that could potentially be employed to quell those concerns.
There were four main concerns, as outlined by Paul Scapicchio, former City Councilor who was representing the Tobia family — the project’s proponent and owner of the old New England Casket Company. These concerns were traffic, parking, GPS navigation, and rodent control.
In terms of traffic and parking, there are concerns that vehicles from the proposed development would use Palermo Street, Swan Avenue, and Leverett Avenue as pass-throughs or even use those streets for parking.
Moreover, regarding GPS navigation, it was pointed out that sometimes when you put the Belle Isle Marsh into your GPS, it does not send you to the correct entrance, thus pushing parking onto residential streets. Finally, there were concerns that construction would lead to pest control issues.
One of the mitigation strategies that is proposed to quell the traffic concerns is to put a cul-de-sac at the end of Palermo Street, where it meets Swan and Lawn Avenues, to prevent people from cutting through the area.
“It would obviously be subject to third-party approval, so DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation) would have a say in this; there’s private landowners as well, but we’ve committed to pushing this forward and hopefully getting all these approvals and be able to implement this option,” said Liz Bello Senior Vice President at Redgate.
As for mitigation regarding parking concerns, there are plans to impose “a signage, monitoring, and towing program.” According to the presentation, the program would “include a physical identification system for cars of homeowners, renters, and visitors and a protocol for getting unauthorized cars towed.”
“As part of our approvals, we would work with the neighbors to implement a parking program, and it’s an easy one because it’s basically a license to hunt for Todisco Towing. They basically tow your car, take it away, you pay a fine to get it out — that’s another commitment that we would make,” said Scapicchio.
Concerning the GPS issues, the project team is essentially committing to contacting these different services that have the incorrect location pinned for the entrance to the Belle Isle Marsh and having the services move that pin to the correct location.
“It’s not directly linked to the project, but it’s in the same vain with people that are nonresidents, non-homeowners parking on these streets,” said Bello.
“We would contact those companies and rectify the geolocational information that they have so that they’re not directing them to the streets; they’re directing them somewhere else more appropriate for them to park and access the marsh,” she added.
Finally, as for rodent control, the project team would engage with a pest control company long before construction starts to introduce a baiting program.
While the presentation focused on the aforementioned concerns and mitigation strategies, when it came time for questions, many residents talked about the unit makeup. According to Bello, of the 220 proposed units, 75-percent of them are one-bedroom units, which did not sit well with residents.
“I think that’s ridiculous. Like you’re trying to keep East Boston families in East Boston having 75-percent of your total units of 220, that is a significant amount of one-bedrooms that are going to be for people that aren’t in this room,” said one resident.
“That’s not for keeping people like this in this neighborhood; that’s for bringing people from all over the city, all over Somerville, Cambridge, moving them here, and they’re going to move out very quickly,” the resident added.
Scapicchio responded directly to the resident’s feedback saying, “Let’s be right upfront … it is a commercial development that we have to build that has to be commercially viable.”
“The idea is we’re building more housing in a region that is starved for housing,” he added. While also indicating that the development has more two and three-bedroom units than what is required.
Other residents also commented on this subject. One said, “Let’s face it, Paul [Scapicchio], it comes down to the almighty buck, and they’re trying to make a profit, so let’s put the cards on the table.”
Scapicchio acknowledged the resident’s comments about the project, saying, “It is about a feasible project for the Tobias. It is to try to monetize their site since they lost their business.”
Although the project team certainly seemed to take in feedback from residents and make some mitigation commitments, it was not enough to win support from those in attendance, as a vote of 25-14 opposed the project.