The Forest Hills area around the T station is a tough place to park now for the residents. At one of the meetings allowing the public to attend pertaining to the new development at the intersection of Ukraine Way and Hyde Park Avenue, it was revealed that they were allowing .7 cars of parking space per unit. In other words, for every 10 apartments they were allotting only seven parking spaces. A gentleman at this meeting pointed out that when he gets home from work now, it takes one hour or more to find a parking space. He left in disgust when he learned that only .7 parking spaces per unit were being allowed.
Now there is a new development at the Laz parking lot on Washington Street across from the Forest Hills T station being proposed. This parking lot is currently used by commuters using the T. There will be even less parking spaces per unit. Only 130 spaces are allotted for the new units, an additional 10 parking spaces will be added for visitors. This means for 252 units of living space will have only 130 parking spaces for them to use or 130/252 = .52 parking spaces per unit.
It seems that the developers want to make the most number of units, and assume because the new residents live near the T, most do not need cars. This may be true for some of the people, but surely there will not be enough parking spaces to satisfy all the new residents. A lot of people will need cars to commute to their jobs that are not accessible by the T.
These new residents will be allowed to apply for Forest Hills parking stickers so that they can park on the already very crowded streets. Making things impossible for resident to have enough parking.
The new buildings at the Laz parking lot will eliminate even more spaces.
Has anybody told the commuters that use this lot that it will not exist?
Also, is the T planning on building a public parking garage anyplace in this area to compensate for the loss of the space at the Laz lot?
I know the BPDA and Gov. Baker need to build many living units in the Boston area, but more parking spaces need to be provided for these new developments, especially near the Forest Hills T station.
There will be a meeting open to the public for one hour about the Laz development on Nov. 30 from 6:30 to 7:30 at 24 Orchardhill Road in JP.
After the developers are gone, they will not care, but they should be made to care.
Charlie Golay
Jamaica Plain resident
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