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Brighton Allston Improvement Association Brighton Elks, 326 Washington St. 5/7/2015 Meeting convened at 7pm Updates from Boston Police District D-14 ●
Since the last time we were here the tree ninja has been arrested and will hopefully be put away for good
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There was a licensing board hearing about Maryanne’s in Cleveland Circle. ○
Maryanne’s has been a problem for the police for years now
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Always finding underage drinking and overcrowding
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This licensing board seems like they will take this more seriously than others have in the past.
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There’s been a man going around accosting women down towards the BU area
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There was a housebreak on President’s Terrace, an apartment was robbed. Resident used “find my phone” app and the suspects were found
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There is a dedicated drug unit in all of the districts, so if you see something suspicious make a call
Updates from John Laadt- Office of Neighborhood Services ●
This week the mayor launched Imagine Boston 2030, a major visioning process for the city. 2030 will be Boston’s 400th anniversary and the mayor really wants community input on what the city will look like by then.
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Visit imagine.boston.gov for more detials
Boston Creates Initiative ●
Arts and Culture planning initiative for the city
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Looking for people to serve on community teams
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Go to http://www.bostoncreates.org/ for more information
Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation will be having our Annual Meeting on June 2nd at the Harvard Ed Portal from 6:30-8:30pm. Dr. Chris Herbert, the Managing Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard will be speaking about the future of homeownership in an urban context! Commonwealth Care Alliance ●
Did an analysis of the community and found that we need more community services
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Respite care is a huge need
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A space became available at 747 Cambridge St, this would be a great location for respite
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The building is currently being renovated inside and out
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There will be 24 hour staff
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This will be a place for people who need a little extra support for short periods of time
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Hopefully everything will be finished and we will be in the building by June 1st
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Will there be a doctor on call and doing visits? ○
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Yes there will be a doctor present at some times and on call 24 hours
How do you get these services? ○
Enroll in Commonwealth Care
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There is also a senior care option
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Capacity is 14 beds
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There will be a grand opening on June 2nd
86-88 Colborne- Wants to enclose porch ●
It is a small porch that would just be enclosed similar to many other porches in the area
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The condition of the porch has deteriorated because of the weather this winter, enclosing it will prevent this from happening in the future
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It will stay a porch and remain unheated
18 Murdock Rear- Seeks to renovate carriage house and convert to residential ●
Will convert into rental units
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Owner is very committed to the neighborhood
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The carriage house is currently in very poor shape and needs to be renovated, the only way to do this logically is to add rentals
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There is plenty of parking already existing
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The carriage will be restored, it will remain primarily the same just upgraded
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Current tenant of the main house building- there used to be 4 carriage houses on this street, one was renovated, two were knocked down, and this is the last one. I have lived here since 1992- he is obviously a great landlord
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What is this zoned for? Residential, 2 family
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How many units are currently there? ○
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9 units in the main house, would be adding 3 in carriage house
Have you filed anything yet? ○
No, wanted to talk to the community first.
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We are going to try and preserve the structure
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We have done a lot of work on the existing units and they are well maintained
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Is this lot beside the 3 new buildings built in the area?
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No it is farther down
Resident- make this look less like a giant parking lot, put in some landscaping, make it look nice as you drive up Sparhawk
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Suggestion- File and come back so we can see what variances you need, we are not ready to vote on this
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We’d love to see the carriage house restored but the density is a concern
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New units will be rentals but the plan is for the owners to come back and live in one of them
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We won’t take down the big tree next to the carriage house
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The units will be 1000, 1000, and 800sqft
Cleveland Circle- The Circle Project ●
This project has been going on for about 5 years now and has changed a lot over that time
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There are many IAG members present
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The project has changed developers from Boston Development Group to National Development but BDG is still involved as a partner.
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National Development has a commitment to community, creativity, stability, and sustainability
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Working with Elkus Manfredi and Stantech on design and development
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We respect the work that has been done by the community on this
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Want to get this built in 2015!
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Will still be a hotel, rental units, restaurant and retail, and 188 parking spaces
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Rentals will be senior housing
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Courtyard area will have piazza design
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Hotel and rentals will be 2 distinct buildings
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There will be a parking garage underneath the hotel and behind the complex
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We are keeping the Circle Cinema sign
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We will be giving $600,000 to improve traffic signals in Cleveland Circle
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$250,000 will be used to improve Cassidy Playground
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Almost every unit has a balcony
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Suggestion- The corner of the building should be rounded and look nicer facing Cleveland Circle
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The front of the building looks like a warehouse, this design isn’t great
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Will you be using union construction? ○
The higher-ups are in a discussion about this right now, I don’t know the details of that
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How many jobs will be created? ○
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How long will the project be? ○
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Not sure off hand about 15-17months
Will this be affordable? ○
This will be in compliance with inclusionary zoning but the rental rates have not been configured yet
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This is not the design the IAG wanted, this is not what we recommended. We will talk more about this at the next IAG meeting next week.
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Member of the carpenter’s union- former developer gave a commitment to use local workers. It makes a difference when you use local residents.
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National Development has only been dealing with this for less than a year, we have been working on this project for 5 years now. A year ago the design was excellent, it was oriented towards Cleveland Circle. I am not happy with this current design, it needs to be tweaked. Also need to guarantee that there is public space on the ground level.
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We did a clean-up at Cassidy Park and I noticed the retaining wall is in terrible shape, any plans for this? ○
We need to further study it and figure this out, the majority of the wall is on park property
For more in depth notes on The Circle Project, see notes from their BRA sponsored public meeting here: http://issuu.com/allstonbrightoncdc/docs/375_399_chestnut_hill_ave_meeting_3 559 Washington St.- Seeks to open Asian Noodle Restaurant at former Sweet Pepper location ●
This group is taking over the lease from Sweet Pepper
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Will be modern Asian fusion cuisine, not high end
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Need a CV and delivery license
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Hours will be 11am-10pm
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No liquor
328 Washington St. - Mandy and Joe’s location ●
The owners of Devlin’s have purchased Mandy and Joe’s and are looking to open another restaurant
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Mandy and Joe’s had been in this spot since 1948
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Would be called The Puritan and would be an old American diner style, retro with a modern twist.
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Want to open the back up to the Devlin’s patio
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Will have an interactive kitchen
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Hopefully space for live music and events
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This really presents us an opportunity to do something different, that the community wants, but that we don’t necessarily want to do at Devlin’s
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There is a need for more restaurants with entertainment and places like this in the community after so many have closed
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This will enable us to add this kind of place and keep Devlin’s the way it was originally intended
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Neighbors want to see this
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Resident-All of the recent closings have shrunk options in Brighton, we need to embrace this if we want to keep the Brighton community vibrant
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Resident- this will improve the area. Places like this are a magnet for people
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This needs a storefront consistent with the building facade
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Resident- Anything these guys do will be magnificent, they have done a lot for this community.
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Resident- We need this kind of vibrance in Brighton, they care about the neighborhood and they give back
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Brighton Main Streets President- we’re very fortunate to have business owners like this, best of luck
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BPD- There has never been a violation at Devlin’s that I know of, asset to the neighborhood
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Hours? Will be about the same as Devlin’s, maybe open earlier for brunch
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All music will be in the basement
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Young professionals will spend their money here
235 Market St.- ScrubaDub upgrades ●
Haven’t filed anything yet, wanted to talk to the community first
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ScrubaDub is a family business, there are 17 locations in New England
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Brighton, until recently was the only facility where we didn’t own the property. Now that we own the property we want to make upgrades
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We do care very much about the community
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The current facility is self-serve, we want to build a fully automated car wash
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The hours will be 8am-8pm, opposed to self-serve which is 24 hours.
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This will create more jobs
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Will be repaving the sidewalks
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There will be free vacuums for the community to use in their cars
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ScrubaDub is the largest carwash chain in New England
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A traffic study brought up some safety concerns with the entrance on Market St. so we may remove that entrance and use the Entrance and Exit on Faneuil St.
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Was the traffic study done on Faneuil? ○
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Yes
Faneuil St Resident- People at ScrubaDub make a mess on Faneuil St. the traffic study is wrong
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The automated system will speed up the process and cars will not be waiting as long
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We are very experienced at managing these traffic concerns
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The study recommended that we take out the Market St. entrance but we can leave it
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We can work more in depthly with BTD on traffic issues
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We are very eager to get involved in the community here
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Recommended that you set up a meeting for the neighbors-- connect with John Laadt
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Resident- Improve the site, add more landscaping and greenspace
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This model will improve the traffic
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Resident- make sure you maintain the site ○
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Can you make a right turn only exit? ○
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There will be 3 full time employees who can work on this That’s an option but people may not follow it
This model is a huge environmental improvement
7-9 Gem Ave- Looking to raze a 2 family house and construct a new one as well as a new 2family on 3-5 Gem Ave ●
This two-family is in bad shape and the only way that makes sense to deal with this is to raze it and build another
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They will be front and back units split down the middle
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Each unit will have 2-car garage underneath the house
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Footprint is actually smaller than the current house
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A lot of variances- ISD doesn’t consider Gem Ave a street because it is only 15ft wide so all of the setbacks are an issue
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Had an abutters meeting- neighbors are concerned about the lot size but not necessarily opposed
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Lot’s are both about 37,000sqft
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Resident- you need more landscaping, there’s not really any yard so you need to do what you can
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These will be sold as condos
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Need to work with the fire dept because of width of Gem Ave
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Resident- you’re essentially doubling the density
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Resident- I support what you’re doing, I don’t think this is unreasonable