By Adam Swift
The developers of a proposed three-story, six-unit residential building at 3 Moore St. made their initial presentation to the Harbor View Neighborhood Association at the group’s February meeting earlier this month.
“We’ve not held an abutters’ meeting yet, this is our initial informational meeting, but we will be back, hopefully relatively soon for a vote on this,” said attorney Richard Lynds, representing project developer Jam 5 Properties, LLC. “The reason that we are here is that we do require relief under the Boston zoning code.”
The proposal is on a 5,000-square-foot lot with an existing single-family home and an adjacent garage.
“We propose to build a new single structure with six units total; it will be a mix of two-plus bedrooms and three bedrooms,” said Lynds. “They range in size from 935 square feet to about 1,150 square feet.”
Lynds noted that under the zoning for the neighborhood, there are a number of options the developer could have looked at for the parcel, since the city no longer has a lot size minimum for residential development.
“We do have the possibility of looking at the site from a different perspective, rather than a single building, we are entitled to subdivide the lot to 2,500-square lots,” said Lynds. “We could construct two, three-family dwellings of three stories each. If we do that, we are not required to have any off-street parking.”
One of the most significant changes to East Boston zoning, Lynds said, is that one- to three-units on a single parcel do not require off-street parking.
“I know that is probably an unpopular provision in the Boston zoning code, but that is the current state of the parking requirements for East Boston,” Lynds said. “Our proposal is one single building, very similar to what we proposed for a project recently. A lot of that has to do with the efficiency of building the site.”
Lynds and the development team were questioned as to why they were proposing a single building that required zoning relief instead of two smaller buildings with potentially smaller units for the neighborhood.
“Two separate buildings versus one single building actually require a lot more site prep, and certainly make the design of the building a little less efficient,” said Lynds. “If we can do it in a single building, we can avoid two separate water services, two separate electrical services, etc., and we can make a much more efficient design for the building.”
The zoning code does allow for six-unit buildings in the district, but the project does need zoning relief for lot width. The district requires a lot width of 55 feet for six units, while the Moore Street lot has a width of 50 feet.
“We believe that the intention was to try to have larger lots for purposes of a single building, but … you can make this site work for six units, it just has to be two separate buildings,” said Lynds.
The height of the three-story building would be 35 feet, which is within zoning requirements, and the depth of the building at 61.5 feet is within the maximum requirement of 70 feet.
The project is seeking relief from parking requirements based on topographical issues and the inability to add parking to the back of the property. Lynds noted that if the project were built as two separate buildings, there would not be off-street parking required. He added that one of the existing curb cuts for the property will be closed, adding an additional off-street parking spot in the neighborhood.
In other business at its monthly meeting, the HVNA heard from Cindy Baxter about her plans to start a Friends of Constitution Beach group.
Baxter said she would like to recruit neighbors in an effort to have a voice at the table when decisions are being made about the beach, as well as to address concerns, pursue fun events, and help coordinate improvements at the beach.
“I know that it is an idea that has been out and about for, really, years now,” said Baxter. “What happened was that some of the work associated with Project Shade I think that many of you heard about that the DCR was doing, but the DCR didn’t talk to folks on the Orient Heights side of the beach and had plans to do a lot of things right in front of people’s backyards.”
Baxter noted that her backyard opens on the beach, and that there have been issues with public drinking and drug use on the beach near her home.
“All this stuff is overwhelming when you don’t have a voice, and once again, we found out about Project Shade and the idea of building another pavilion basically in our backyard when we already have drinking problems and everything I just mentioned, there was a renewed interest in getting together,” Baxter said.
The HVNA also heard from Morgan Balin about the CSA program from Eastie Farms and the ability to buy co-op farm shares for fresh produce this year. Eastie Farms owns and operates local farming sites in East Boston and around the region, and also provides educational opportunities and food support in addition to the growing and CSA produce share programs.