FOREST HILLS—A developer is proposing to demolish a vacant martial arts studio at 38-42 Hyde Park Ave., at the Weld Hill Street intersection, and replace it with a four-story, mixed-use building.
According to a Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council Zoning Committee agenda for its May 5 meeting, City Realty is proposing to raze the existing one-story building and construct a new four-story dwelling with nine residential units and ground-level retail space in its place.
A representative for the owner has been asking Forest Hills-area residents to sign a petition in support for a height variance for the vacant building, according to Wenham Street resident Tess Pope, who is helping to found a new neighborhood association.
Pope told the Gazette that the owner’s representative said that City Realty is looking to add three stories to the building for a total of four. The area is zoned for three stories, forcing the a variance request.
“Here is another attempt to cash in on this neighborhood. Maybe the plan is great, maybe it isn’t. But we do need to be on top of this,” Pope posted on a community Google Group, asking neighbors to refrain from signing the petition until City Realty’s plan is clear.
Gazette calls to City Realty’s Brighton office were not returned. A Gazette request for comment from George Morancy, the owner’s attorney, was also not answered.
The former home of Yang’s Martial Arts Association has been vacant since that business moved to Roslindale in November 2012.
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Man, the end of the end of an era. Yang's was in that spot for something like 30 years. The place in Roslindale has way better parking, though.
Boston neighborhoods need to increase density, especially near public transit stations for the economic future of the city as well as the health of its residents. Like in other parts of Boston, the Forest Hills neighborhood is increasingly seeing homes once used by large, multi-generational families are being converted to condos with far fewer occupants per unit. At the same time that more and more people want to live in cities, the cost of living is becoming unaffordable for all but the most wealthy. Projects like this one where a single story building is replaced with a 3-4 story building (retail/commercial space on the ground floor with 2-3 floors of residential space) will be a great way to increase density without adversely affecting the character of our neighborhoods the way a big project to build apartment buildings does. In Jamaica Plain, for example, there are a number of single-story buildings along main streets such as Centre, South, Washington, & Hyde Park that are ripe for replacement with 3-4 story buildings. It will be a great way to increase the housing stock, promote economic development for local business, and make the city more transit-oriented. I hope to see this plan for 38-42 Hyde Park Ave come to fruition.