By Gazette Staff
The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC) held its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 24, via Zoom. Chair Renee Stacey Welch presided over the session. JPNC members in attendance included at-large members Sarah Freeman, Michael Reiskind, Purple Reign, and David Baron; Area A members Willie Mitchell, Danielle Sommer Kieta, and Peter DeCotis; Area B member Lorenzo Bartoloni; and Area C members Bernard Doherty, Nick Chaves, and Carla-Lisa Caliga.
Also on hand were Caroline Peters, the liaison to Jamaica Plain from Mayor Michelle Wu’s office, and Bonnie Delaune, the Chief of Staff for District 6 City Councilor Ben Weber;
The meeting began with a vote by the council to schedule its biennial election for Saturday, September 20. The election originally had been scheduled for Saturday, June 21, but was postponed because of a dearth of candidates.
Welch said that the JPNC, which is one of only a few wholly-elected community councils in the city (other councils have members who are appointed by the mayor), only had nine candidates for its 20 available seats (five at-large and five from each of the three geographic areas in JP).
“We thought it would be best to postpone the election until September 20 in the hopes of getting more candidates at that time,” said Welch. The council members unanimously voted to reschedule the election for September 20.
Welch also broached the possibility that, if there still is a lack of candidates in September, the present council members could remain on the council and they then could elect interested members of the community onto the council.
She encouraged the members to reach out to their friends and neighbors to bring them to the JPNC’s meetings this summer and urge them to run for the council.
Baron, the chair of the Zoning Committee, presented the report of his committee. He noted that the committee heard four matters during the month, two of which were applications by owner-occupants who were seeking variances in order to expand their living spaces into their attics.
The other two pertained to more-expansive projects. The first was for 28-30 Carolina Ave. in which the developer is seeking what Baron termed “a modest proposal in terms of scale” to turn the existing historic buildings into two, 3-family residences. He noted there was support from neighbors and no strong opposition.
As for the other project at 14 Meehan St., Baron said that a couple of years ago there had been a long zoning process to turn the building from a single residential unit with artist space and a yoga studio into a two-family house with studio space. However, that plan never came to fruition and the new owner is proposing to convert the building into three residential units.
Baron noted that the Stonybrook Neighborhood Assoc. (SNA) had submitted a letter to the Zoning Committee stating that they did not oppose the project, but requested that the approval for the project be conditioned upon the developer installing fencing, leaving the existing trees, reducing the impermeable surfaces, and adding new trees, as well as incorporating some design suggestions (including dark-sky outdoor lighting), all of which were acceptable to the developer.
Baroin asked that the full JPNC affirm the Zoning Committee’s recommendations in favor of all four applications, including the provisos for 14 Meehan St. The members supported the Zoning Comm’s recommendations. The owners of those properties now must go before the City of Boston ZBA in order to obtain their variances.
Baron also noted that the ZBA had approved the variance requests just that morning (June 24) for the 12-unit development at the former gas station at 561-579 Centre St. despite the united opposition of the Zoning Comm., the Jamaica Pond Association, and the JPNC.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how our elected officials participated in the meeting,” said Baron. “They got our letter and phone calls from me urging them to oppose this project because our council opposed it. It is rare that we firmly take a position in opposition to a private development, yet we did that here and it is absolutely legitimate to expect that the ZBA and our elected officials will take our communications seriously.
“I hope it is simply the ZBA being contemptuous of the local process and that our electeds strongly opposed this and that the ZBA just decided to go its own way. I’m personally plenty annoyed by it,” Baron added.
Caliga added she also was upset by the ZBA’s decision.
“They are going over our recommendations and are going with developers even more, and drowning out community voices,” she said. “This is very disturbing to me.”
Reiskind presented the report of the Public Service Comm. He said that the committee gave a favorable recommendation for the transfer of the existing licenses to sell beer & wine and for entertainment from BU Bistro, 3840 Washington St., to Oda Bar and Bites.Reiskind noted that the entertainment license is limited to recorded music only on the rear patio, which abuts the commuter rail lines. He noted that BU Bistro had the same entertainment license.
The full JPNC voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of the Public Service Committee. The new owner now must go before the city’s Licensing Commission in order to obtain approval for the transfer of the two licenses.
The guest speaker for the evening was mayoral candidate Josh Kraft, who addressed a wide range of matters, including his past involvement with the Boys and Girls Club, the need for improvements to the city’s streets (including the issues of bike lanes and speed humps), the ongoing problems at Mass. and Cass, and the White Stadium project.
The next meeting of the JPNC is set for Tuesday, July 22.