BC Proposes to Raze Three Single-Family Houses

At the previous meetings of the Boston College Task Force, the Boston College planners presented proposals for the usage of three lots at 188, 192, and 196 Foster Street. All three have single-family, detached houses on their property which, according to local experts, have significant historical and architectural value.

192 Foster Street also connects to a much larger open space that includes a forested section, a field, fenced tennis courts recently converted to BC parking, and the Foster Rock granite outcropping. The total area is 5.16 acre.



BC is proposing to demolish all three single-family homes as part of their plan to put 70 beds of town-house-style, seminarian housing on the lot.

Here is the piece of their master plan visual showing the upside-down, U-shaped seminarian housing complex they propose:

which avoids building on Foster Rock, but otherwise develops much of the lot.

These three, single-family, detached houses represent 2% of all such houses in the neighborhood (Census Tract 4.02, which is bounded by Washington St, Lake St, Comm. Ave, and Chestnut Hill Ave).

At a time when owner-occupied housing has decreased to 20% overall in Allston-Brighton -- and from 34 to 30% in this census tract (1990-2000) --

Should BC be buying up single-family houses in order to demolish them and build institutional housing?

Join the discussion of the topic at the BC Neighbors Forum (a Google Group).

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Here's some information about the three properties in question:
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Address.........Parcel ID......Owner..............................Notes
188 Foster St 2204960010 Trustees of Boston College (A)
192 Foster St 2204960020 Trustees of Boston College (B)
192 Foster St 2204960021 Trustees of Boston College (C)
196 Foster St 2204959001 Boston College (D)

(A) "Apartment building," currently on tax rolls, but purchased 2/1/06
from Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston for $1.

(B) Land under the building, and adjacent open space lot, totalling
212,137 sq. ft., currently not on the tax rolls. Purchased
6/29/04 as part of $99.4M "Lake Street" transaction with the
Archdiocese. Currently assessed at $5,088,500, which would
correspond to $55,922 at residential rate or $136,728 at
commercial tax rate. Contains tennis courts that were converted
a couple of years ago to a parking lot (legality unclear).

(C) Building itself, classified as an apartment, currently on tax
rolls.

(D) Single-family house, purchased from Virginia Dalton on 5/5/06.
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If the Archdiocese has any more single-family houses they want to sell for $1, I'll buy them!!!