JPNDC submits revised Site III plan

The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) with their partner The Community Builders (TCB) have submitted a revised plan to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) for Site III of the Jackson Square redevelopment project after years of planning and community processes.

About 11 acres of land in Jackson Square are being redeveloped by a team that includes Mitchell Properties, JPNDC, TCB and Urban Edge. TCB and Mitchell Properties have completed the first phase of the redevelopment at 225 Centre St. The overall redevelopment has moved slowly over decades of planning and funding bumps.

Site III is vacant land situated roughly between the Orange Line corridor, Amory Street, and Centre Street. Two buildings, called Building M and Building N in the BRA document, are scheduled to be built as phase 3 of Site III.

Building M at 25 Amory St. will include 44 affordable-housing rental units and 22 parking spaces, according to the BRA document. A minimum of 10 percent of these units will be affordable to extremely low-income households, and the rest will be affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income (AMI). Building M will be 45 feet tall, 10 feet shorter compared to the initial draft of the project.

Building M will require variances for the use of the first story for residential dwelling units, insufficient front yard depth, and insufficient rear yard depth.

Building N at 250 Centre St. will be a mixed-income, mixed-use building to include 100 rental apartments, some priced at market rate and at least 25 percent affordable to households earning up to 60 percent AMI. Ten percent of these units will be affordable to extremely low-income households, and 39 percent will be sized for families. It will also include 2,400 square feet of retail space and 80 parking spaces. Building N will be 70 feet tall, 50 feet shorter than the originally planned 120 feet.

Building N will require variances for use of the first story for residential dwelling units, excessive building height variance (both absolute height and number of stories), insufficient rear yard depth, insufficient usable open space, and excessive floor area ratio.

There was some community concern about excessive parking as the Gazette previously reported, and the developers had justified their necessity at the time. The final project report now indicates a scaling back of total parking spaces to be included, currently proposed at 102 parking spaces.

Construction of infrastructure, which includes re-grading portions of the site and realigning the Stony Brook sewer line, is set to begin in the fall of 2016. The construction of the Building M is slated to begin in spring 2017, while Building N is expected to begin in fall 2017.

[This article has been updated to reflect the correct percentage of affordable housing for Building N and its previous planned building height.]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *