BC Neighbors Forum: Public Meeting Monday Night at 7:00 pm

Boston College Neighbors Forum:
Public Meeting to Discuss BC's Master Plan

Monday, June 30th, 7:00 pm
Brighton Elks Lodge, 326 Washington Street

Brighton residents are invited to attend a community meeting to analyze and discuss the details of the Boston College institutional master plan. The meeting will take place on Monday, June 30th, 7:00 pm, at the Brighton Elks Lodge, 326 Washington Street, Brighton Center.

The Boston College Neighbors Forum is an unaffiliated, independent grassroots discussion group. The goal of the meeting is to build a consensus in the community on issues of common concern, and to prepare formal community feedback to BC and the City of Boston.

Public participation is strongly encouraged and all residents will be afforded an opportunity to speak as time permits. Possible topics for future meetings will be discussed.

For more information, contact Michael Pahre at 617-216-1447 or pahre@comcast.net; or visit the BC_Neighbors_Forum Google Group (membership required).

Parking is available at the rear of the building, accessed from Winship Street.


Background

BC's housing presentation to the 6/16 task force meeting can be found here (PDF), while their presentation to the 6/4 meeting (athletics) can be found here. Their full master can be found here.

Housing Petition as a Public Comment to the BRA on BC's IMPNF

Dear Brighton neighbors,

Over the past nine months, members of our community have attended a series of public meetings of the BC Neighbors Forum. We have also had a lively exchange of ideas here on this Google Group. And, of course, we have regularly attended the monthly meetings of the BC Task Force. Many opinions have been expressed about issues related to BC's proposed expansion plans.

The coordinating committee for the public meetings has tried to draw upon all those comments in order to put together a single document that expresses, as best we can ascertain, the common central ground amongst our diverse neighborhood. As you can imagine, it took a lot of work just to get this committee of 15-ish people to agree on all the wording -- as well as what to include, and what not to include. We have heard your concerns and tried to respond, as best we could, to incorporate them into the document.

This "housing petition" focuses only on housing issues in BC's master plan. As a public comment to the BRA, it makes concrete suggestions as to what further study we believe should be requested from BC in the scoping determination.

The scoping option argued for in the petition is flexible: it identifies multiple sites for housing that are more than sufficient to house all of BC's currently off-campus students, thereby leaving BC flexibility to choose which sites to use and how to balance building heights and open space.

This scoping option is complete: it deals with the entire issue of undergraduate housing, rather than expressing opposition or support for only one particular site or another.

And this scoping option is robust: if problems are identified in one or more parts of particular sites, there are more than sufficient alternative sites identified that the scoping option could still work.

Our committee's intention is to work next on a similar petition about athletics facilities.

Please read over the housing petition and consider supporting it.

One way to sign onto the petition will be at next Tuesday's (1/29) meeting of the BC Task Force, at 6:30 pm at the Brighton Marine Health Center.

To sign up yourself -- or to have your friends and/or neighbors sign on, too -- contact me at pahre@comcast.net for a PDF of the letter and a signature page. (I.e., hardcopies of signatures are required.)

For those people who would like to get signatures on their street, a short note sent to me at pahre@comcast.net would be helpful so that we don't duplicate efforts on any particular street.

Note that this "housing petition" in no way should be considered as replacing your own, independent public comments to submit to the BRA. There are many important issues which we could not cover in this one, short document.

-Mike Pahre,
for the BC Neighbors Forum coordinating committee


Housing Petition:

To: Boston Redevelopment Authority
Re: Housing Issues in the Boston College Institutional Master Plan Notification Form
Date: January 22, 2008

As many Allston-Brighton residents, we are concerned about the disproportionately large number of undergraduate students (including Boston College students) living in houses and apartment buildings in our neighborhood. The neighborhood is plagued by quality of life issues related to student rentals, which leads to an increasingly transient population. As a result, it is difficult to attract families to Allston-Brighton, and keep them here.

Therefore, we urge the BRA to seek revisions in BC’s proposed Institutional Master Plan in order to better serve the needs of the Allston-Brighton community. We ask for the following:

1. By 2018, BC should be required to provide on-campus housing for all of its undergraduate students (except those studying elsewhere or commuting from family homes in the greater Boston area).
   
2. Undergraduate dorms are unacceptable on the former seminary grounds, which borders a residential neighborhood, and should not be built. BC can, and should, colocate its undergraduate students in the traditionally residential parts of the Chestnut Hill campus (both Boston and Newton) that are not directly adjacent the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.
   
3. It should be ensured that: the proposed housing for Jesuit seminarians on Foster Street is used for absolutely no other purpose far beyond the 10-year IMP time frame; that the extension of Wiltshire Road is never re-opened; and that buffer zones are increased.
   

To accomplish these goals, we request the BRA’s scoping determination include the following:

1. BC should maintain the Edmonds Hall site for dormitories -- as well as the current site of the Rec Plex (Flynn Recreation Center), should they wish to move it elsewhere.
   
2. To make good use of available land and maximize open space, BC should build dorms of 6 or more stories high (consistent with those recently built), and locate them throughout the Chestnut Hill campus, including Newton (and not directly adjacent the Chestnut Hill Reservoir).
   
3. BC should substantially increase the number of beds on the two-story “Mods” site (temporary housing built in 1970) to accommodate more students on campus.
   

In light of deep concerns about impacts caused by BC purchasing houses in Brighton, we also desire full transparency as to their purpose and extent, both now and in the future. BC can best serve and coexist with the Allston-Brighton community by taking the responsibility of providing on-campus housing for all of its undergraduate students. For decades, BC has not assumed this full responsibility to the detriment of the neighborhood.

This letter comprises a complete, robust, and flexible scenario for undergraduate housing that the BRA should require BC to scope fully. The proposals identified here for housing are more than sufficient to house all BC's undergraduates while still maximizing open space. We believe that our community position outlined in this document offers solutions that serve the interests of the community, BC, and the city.

BC Neighbors Forum: Public Meeting Monday 12/17 at 7:00 pm

Boston College Neighbors Forum:
Public Meeting to Discuss BC's Master Plan

Monday, December 17, 7:00 pm
Brighton Elks Lodge

Brighton residents are invited to attend a community meeting to analyze and discuss the details of the Boston College institutional master plan. The meeting will take place on Monday, December 17th, 7:00 pm, at the Brighton Elks Lodge, 326 Washington Street, Brighton Center.

The Boston College Neighbors Forum is an unaffiliated, independent grassroots discussion group. The goal of the meeting is to build a consensus in the community on issues of common concern, and to prepare formal community feedback to BC and the City of Boston.

Public participation is strongly encouraged and all residents will be afforded an opportunity to speak as time permits. Possible topics for future meetings will be discussed.

For more information, contact Michael Pahre at 617-216-1447 or pahre@comcast.net; or visit the BC_Neighbors_Forum Google Group.

Parking is available at the rear of the building, accessed from Winship Street.

A PDF flyer can be found here.


Background

BC's institutional master plan notification form can be found at the VHB website. More information, and links to media reports, can be found on a previous post. The master plan filed by BC differs a bit from previous versions they presented earlier this year. Earlier media coverage of BC's housing plan in the Boston Globe can be found here, followed by letters-to-the-editor, as well as an editorial.

The BC Neighbors Forum held three public meetings earlier this year (here, here, and here). Media coverage of previous events can be found here and here, and an op-ed column I wrote about the May meeting of the BC Task Force.

Boston Globe: BC expansion called too close for comfort

The Boston Globe reported today on Boston College's expansion plan into the Brighton Campus (former St. John's Seminary land) and the neighbors response to it. One BC proposal is meeting much neighborhood opposition: construction of two or three dormitories containing a total of 600 beds of undergraduate housing in the Brighton Campus.

The concern is that undergraduate dormitories so close to neighborhood houses will drive families away.

[BC Vice President for Governmental and Community Affairs Thomas] Keady said the college is trying to assure residents it is a good neighbor and is meeting with them regularly to hear and address their concerns.

"There's a trust factor here," he said. "But what we don't want is people selling their homes."

Neighbors are unconvinced... "It will destroy the neighborhood," [Lake Street resident Alex] Selvig said. "If there are dorms across the street, I don't want to live here."

...

"People said, 'You knew there was a college over there when you moved here,' " said Sandy Furman, who lives on Lane Park. "But we didn't know there was going to be a college over here."

...

"I can time the closing of every saloon in Oak Square from the parade down the street," [said William F. Galvin, secretary of the Commonwealth, who has lived on Lake Street for 25 years]. "This plan would be a disaster for neighbors."

...

Neighbors said they recognize the university's right to develop the property, but insist that academic or administrative buildings are more appropriate for a residential neighborhood.

BC Neighbors Forum: Public Meeting Monday, May 21 at 7:00pm

Boston College Neighbors Forum: Public Meeting

Monday, May 21, 7:00 pm
Edison Middle School
60 Glenmont Street

Area residents are invited to attend a community meeting to analyze and discuss the details of the Boston College development plans. The meeting will take place on Monday, May 21st, 7:00 pm, at the Edison Middle School, 60 Glenmont Road, Brighton.

The Boston College Neighbors Forum is an unaffiliated, independent grassroots discussion group. The goal of the meeting is to build a consensus in the community on issues of common concern, and to eventually prepare formal community feedback to BC and the City of Boston.

The May 21 meeting will focus on BC plans for transportation-related issues, including re-routing St. Thomas More Road and moving the MBTA station. Proposed buildings along Commonwealth Avenue will also be discussed.

Public participation is strongly encouraged and all residents will be afforded an opportunity to speak as time permits. Possible topics for future meetings will be discussed.

For more information, Michael Pahre at 617-216-1447 or pahre@comcast.net; or visit the GoogleGroup at
http://groups.google.com/group/BC_Neighbors_Forum .

Press Coverage of BC Neighbors Forum Meetings

The Boston Globe's City Weekly section ran a story in today's Sunday paper about the recent meetings of the BC Neighbors Forum. There were also a few quotes from BC officials, like this one:

Also planned for the land are a 14,000-square-foot sports support facility and a 200-space garage, according to Jack Dunn, Boston College director of public affairs. Dunn said the 2,000- seat baseball stadium, which is 1,500 seats larger than the current field near Chestnut Hill Reservoir, will still be one of the smallest baseball stadiums in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which BC joined two years ago.

A few comments:

1. Yay! New accuracy in describing the stadium as "one of the smallest" in the ACC, rather than the smallest.
2. The square footage of the sports support facilities is a little bit misleading, in that it includes the "support facility" building and the parking spaces in the parking garage, but does not include the additional square footage of the enclosed tennis courts on the top floor of the parking garage.
   
3. Now... about that 14,000-square-foot support facility: Why does their master plan's visual describe the facility as "25,000+ sq. ft."? (See #39 in image below.) This "14,000 sq.ft." statement was also made by a different BC official during the April 21, 2007 walking tour. Possibly they have decided to downsize the facility since their presentation in mid-March 2007... or they are mixed up on the details of their own master plan. I think BC needs to straighten this one out.
   

Lights and BC's Proposed Baseball Stadium

At Monday's public meeting of the BC Neighbors Forum, the lighting for BC's proposed baseball stadium was discussed. The lights will presumably be the 80-foot field lighting standard (ref 1, 2), but it's hard to get a feeling of what that height would entail at the site.

I went a couple of blocks away from the proposed site of the stadium to Rogers Park, property owned and managed by Boston Parks and Recreation Department. This park has a baseball and softball field is heavily used during the April-October season, and has field lights for nighttime practices and games. Using GoogleEarth, I measured off the distances for both the Brighton Campus and Rogers Park photo locations in order to get a match within roughly 5%. I then simply placed the Rogers Park field lights on top of the picture of the Brighton Campus location proposed for the baseball stadium:



Lane Park houses can be seen on the left-hand-side of the image.

Several points are clear from this image composite:

1. The field lights will extend above the tall, old-growth trees (on the left) which lie between the proposed stadium and the abutting houses at Lane Park.
2. The lights appear high enough that they will shine over those trees to illuminate more houses on Lane Park than just the direct abutters.
3. The photo of the proposed baseball stadium site was taken during the April 21, 2007 walking tour of the Brighton Campus (former Seminary property), hence the lack of tree foliage directly shows how the trees themselves will not block the field lights from the direct abutters during the standard April -- early May baseball season.

As a side note: the proposed baseball stadium will presumably be 40-50 feet high, which would extend to the top of the neighboring houses (or slightly above), based on a roughly 15-foot difference in grade between the field and Lane Park.

BC Neighbors Forum: Public Meeting Monday, April 30 at 7:00pm

An extensive, visual presentation of BC's proposals for athletic facilities will start the meeting.  New information will be presented on:

• Baseball stadium sizes and orientations across the ACC: are the requirements necessary?
  
• Is there space to move the stadium away from houses?
• How tall is the lighting compared to neighboring houses?
• Possible chemical dangers to ground water posed by astro-turf
  

The goal of the meeting is to develop community consensus on
issues related to athletics facilities in BC's master plan:

• Baseball stadium: 2000 seat
• Softball stadium: 500 seat
• Multipurpose field(s)
• Athletic support facility: 25,000+ square feet
• Parking garage / tennis courts: 160-200 spaces

Neighbors of Rogers Park (and members of the Friends of Rogers Park) have been specially invited to attend the meeting in order to provide their insight into what it is like to live near to lighted baseball fields.


Boston College Neighbors Forum:  Public Meeting

Monday, April 30, 7:00 pm
Brighton Elks Lodge
326 Washington Street

Brighton residents are invited to attend a community meeting to
analyze and discuss the details of the Boston College development
plans.  The meeting will take place on Monday, April 30th, 7:00 pm,
at the Brighton Elks Lodge, 326 Washington Street, Brighton Center.

The Boston College Neighbors Forum is an unaffiliated, independent
grassroots discussion group.  The goal of the meeting is to build a
consensus in the community on issues of common concern, and to
eventually prepare formal community feedback to BC and the City of
Boston.

The April 30 meeting will focus on BC plans to construct athletic
fields and/or stadiums on their "Brighton Campus" (i.e., the former
Archdiocese property), and related buildings.

Public participation is strongly encouraged and all residents will be
afforded an opportunity to speak as time permits.  A subsequent
meeting will be scheduled in mid-May to discuss other aspects of BC
plans (e.g., the proposed re-routing of Saint Thomas More Road).

For more information, Michael Pahre at 617-216-1447 or
pahre@comcast.net; or visit the GoogleGroup at
http://groups.google.com/group/BC_Neighbors_Forum .


For background on the athletics facilities proposals, see this blog entry.

Brighton Community Builds Consensus on BC Expansion Plans

The first meeting of the grassroots, unaffiliated group, the "Boston College Neighbors Forum," occurred on Thursday, April 12. Approximately 65 residents attended.

The goals of the meeting were:

1. Let all the voices of the community be heard.
2. Build community consensus on one or more topics.
3. Draft joint letters to the BC Task Force, BRA, BC, and elected officials to convey if consensus were reached on any topic.

Twenty-four possible consensus statements were considered, and seven were adopted. A number of other consensus statements appeared to be within reach, but were deferred to a future meeting pending additional information, additional discussion, or improved wording.

Two letters were drafted to include the consensus statements reached at the meetings. Attendees were free to sign onto the letters at the meeting; other members of the community are invited to join, too, following instructions below.

Letter #1 was drafted in response to BC's proposal to demolish three houses at 188-192-196 Foster Street, and build 70 beds of seminarian, townhouse-style housing on the 5-acre property currently designated as "open space."

To sign onto letter #1, send an email by clicking here.

Letter #2 was drafted in response to BC's proposals for building and demolishing undergraduate housing, and particularly addressed the issue of putting two of those undergraduate dormitories in the "Brighton Campus" (the former Archdiocese property aka "St. John's Seminary grounds"). It also deals with issues of open space, since the property is currently a Conservation Protection Subdistrict zoning overlay.

To sign onto letter #2, send an email by clicking here.

BC Neighbors Forum: Public Meeting Thursday, April 12 at 7:00pm

BC Neighbors Forum
Public Meeting

Thursday, April 12, 2007
7:00 pm

Brighton Marine Health Center
77 Warren Street, Brighton

See below for information (click for larger version). Also see the PDF attachment to the BC Neighbors Forum available from this posting.