In a close vote Harbor View Neighborhood Association (HVNA) members voted 31 to 28 against a project on Horace Street at the group’s September meeting held Monday night at the Edward Brooke’s Charter School.
This was the third presentation given to HVNA members concerning the project at 37 Horace St.
There, owner Joseph Trichillo is looking to demolish an existing three-family home and combine it with two vacant lots and build a nine-unit structure with nine parking spaces on this new 8,000 square-foot lot.
The units would be sold as condos and consist of four one-bedroom, two two-bedroom and three three-bedroom units.
Variances needed for this project are Use, Floor Area Ratio, Height, and Parking.
Members at the meeting asked if the project was an ‘as of right’ project, how many units could the developer build. Trichillo’s attorney, Richard Lynds, said If you combine the lots you could build eight units as of right.
The corner lot has undergone several design changes since first presented to the group earlier this year. Some of the changes made were a reduction in height of the building and the total number of units.
While some of these changes swayed a good amount of HVNA members to vote in favor of the project, others still felt it was too big with not enough parking.
“I’d be happy with six (units), I know you want nine, but I’d like to see six,” said one HVNA member at Monday night’s meeting.
Attorney for Trichillo, Richard Lynds, said a lot has gone into designing a project that tried to balance the needs of the community with the needs of the developer. Lynds said his client heard loud and clear that the project was too tall and reduced the height, as well as offering the nine units as homeownership opportunities rather than rental units.