A proposed construction on a Washington Street strip in Jamaica Plain has raised concerns from business owners about congestion, inflation and other neighborhood concerns.
Three dozen residents, including local business owners, attended a virtual public meeting on March 11 to hear the proposal. They said the development would cause housing prices to skyrocket, making JP even more unaffordable, with many disapproving of the aesthetics of the proposed building and the traffic havoc the construction would cause on nearby streets.
“How can you possibly put a crane in the backyard on our property?” asked Michael West, a local funeral home owner who said he is “vehemently opposed” to the proposed site.
The project aims to raise a one-story structure at 3716-3724 Washington St. that is currently rented by Forest Hills Pizza and Forest Hills Dental. Both are located across from the Forest Hills T stop.
Stephen Harvey, senior project manager in the planning department for the City of Boston, held the meeting to get feedback from the JP community on the proposal, which includes a six-story, mixed-use building with two first-floor retail units and 35 residential units.
The proposed project “directly aligns with key planning and policy initiatives” that aim to create communities where people can “live, work, and thrive” in neighborhoods closer to public transit, according to information from the company’s review application and details from the MBTA’s multi-family zoning initiative.
Harvey explained that eight of the units have an area median income ranging from 70% to 80%, impacting the costs of living in and around Tower Street.
George Lee, an attendee at the meeting, said JP is a mix of low and high-income residents and that the proposal’s median income numbers are “very high” compared to what JP renters make.
“I think the developer really needs to get a lot more solid on [affordability] and come back for another planning department meeting,” Lee said.
The proposed site would also overshadow the traditional buildings along Washington Street that reflect a connection to the neighborhood’s history and its longtime residents, said M. Mendez, who also attended the virtual meeting.
“The building [as proposed] needs to respect the traditional red brick aesthetic, Mendez said. “The building is just too high and too dense.’’
VinCo Properties, the South End real estate development company that is overseeing the project, plans to add public enhancements through sidewalk widening and street tree planting, Vince O’Neill, the company’s founder and president, explained in the meeting.
“If the neighborhood has to make some compromises and sacrifices, the affordable units have to be for working people,” Mendez said. “They should not be for singles that are going to take the T to go to Google or to work at Amazon.”
Musau Dibinga, executive director of OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center whose business is on the strip, expressed frustration over the congestion a new development would cause and about how the city notified the public about the project.
She said she heard about the meeting through her landlord, adding that she wished the city had talked with other business owners like herself instead of only the owners of Forest Hills Pizza and Forest Hills Dental.
The pizza shop owner declined to comment for this article, and the dental office is permanently closed.
OrigiNation, which serves more than 150 students weekly, has been offering dance, leadership and employment training in JP for almost eight years, Dibinga explained.
She also said that Washington Street is a narrow and “congested” road and that construction, with cranes taking up critical on-street parking spots, would only make things worse for the students as they enter and exit the center.
Dibinga said she supports efforts to address the housing shortage but opposes the proposed development because it does not match the “fabric of the community”.
“I want everyone to feel comfortable and have a home,” Dibinga said. “The management company has to be aligned with what we want in the neighborhood.”
West, who owns Brady and Fallon Funeral Home, which would be behind the proposed site, told the meeting participants that his business conducts more than 300 funeral services a year and that the commotion from any construction would be disruptive to grieving and vulnerable families who attend the services.
“The noise, the dust, the vibration, the constant traffic, make it impossible to hold dignified services for a funeral service that’s been in existence since 1875 in Jamaica Plain,” West said at the meeting.
Not everyone at the meeting opposed the project.
Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director of Abundant Housing, expressed his support for the proposal and defended officials at VinCo Properties, which he said had attended multiple Forest Hills Neighborhood Association meetings to hear from the public.
Kanson-Benanav said he believes it’s a “reasonable project” that can address the housing shortage in JP because of its proximity to the Orange Line.
The way to address [the housing shortage] is by building more homes, and I think we need to do it in a sustainable way that doesn’t encourage more and more people to drive,” Kanson-Benanav said.
This story is part of a partnership between the The Mission Hill Gazette and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.