BPDA Hosts Meeting on Walley Street Project

By John Lynds

Attorney for MG2 Richard Lynds discusses his client’s proposal for 11-19 Walley St. at a BPDA sponsored meeting last Thursday.

The Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) held a public meeting last Thursday night at the Hilton Garden Inn regarding the 11-19 Walley St. housing proposal as part of Article 80 small project review.

The developer, MG2, has been working on tweaking and revising the project for over a year with input from the community and abutters.

The project, which was scaled down from its original proposal in 2016, received Orient Heights Neighborhood council approval last year.

After a series of community meetings the developer decided to reduce the height of the building from five to four stories and reduce the number of units from 48 units to 38 units.

According to the developer’s attorney, Richard Lynds, the reduction in height and number of units has resulted in the creation of a top-floor common space with balconies that can be used by residents to host parties or other gatherings.

The proposed project consists of the redevelopment of a 14,993 square-foot industrial site

situated at 11-19 Walley St. near the Suffolk Downs MBTA station.

The project will consist of the 38 market rate rental units with 25 off-street parking spaces located in a garage under the building that will be accessed from Walley Street.

Due to the size of the proposal the project also includes five affordable units under the City of Boston Inclusionary Development Policy.

At the meeting, Lynds said great care was given to respecting the abutting properties, which share boundaries with the site as well as modifications made during the community outreach process to preserve views. Neighbors like John Visconti seemed happy with the changes made to the project and the fact an entire story was knocked off the proposal. A photo, taken from Visconti’s home on Orient Avenue was shown to the crowd at last week’s meeting. The photo, with the proposed building superimposed in the foreground, showed that residents like Visconti would still have views of the ocean.

Lynds said community benefits would include removing an industrial site and creating not only the residential building, but also landscape buffering and associated streetscape improvements. MG2 also agreed to adopt the small triangular park between Walley Street and Orient Avenue. Lynds said MG2 plans to rehab the park, improve pedestrian access around the park and pay for the yearly maintenance of the park.

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