FOREST HILLS—Bicon Dental Implants, a 501 Arborway business, is planning to demolish a 19th century house at 21 Yale Terrace and replacing it with a parking garage and townhouses, according to documents filed with the Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC).
The house at 21 Yale Terrace abuts Bicon’s business.
The project was slated to go before the BLC on the night of Jan. 13 for an Article 85 review, after the Gazette deadline. Article 85 of the zoning code requires an automatic delay of 90 days in issuing a demolition permit for a building more than 50 years of age while the BLC reviews possible historic preservation. The developer is free to obtain demolition permits after the 90 days expire.
Bicon did not respond to a request for comment.
According to City tax records, it appears that Bicon recently bought the house from Berta Berriz. Berriz could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Gazette was first alerted to the project by Yale Terrace resident Kosta Demos, who called the proposal “breathtakingly horrific.”
Bicon has a history of controversial expansions and operations that have drawn neighborhood complaints, City citations and City Council hearings, dating back to a 2006 attempt to create a restaurant on the second floor of its office building.
View Comments (2)
While the property at 21 Yale Terrace is, indeed, more than 100 years old, the real issue here has always been preserving the quality of life for neighb'd residents. As former owners of this property, we can testify to Bicon's arrogant and insensitive treatment of its neighbors.
From the beginning of Bicon's tenure at 123 Morton Street (501 Arborway being a vanity address), its idea of "improving" the property has involved a pattern of inconveniencing our fellow residents and blatant disregard of zoning restrictions and building code requirements. And, for reasons unknown to us, responsible city agencies have apparently winked at these abuses, allowing proposed changes to proceed as fait accomplis.
For these reasons, my wife, Berta Rosa Berriz, and i went to great lengths to ensure that our home would go to a family, thereby preserving the family-friendly character of a neighborhood where people gather for holiday leftover feasts and blizzard parties. Bicon used a straw-buyer, posing as an innocent grandmother looking to keep her grandchildren close, in order to conceal its purchase -- at the very least, a deceitful act of misrepresentation.
Unfortunately, we hold very little hope that the BLC will provide more than pro forma consideration for the concerns of our friends and former neighbors. However, what's at stake is more than the fate of this tiny street in JP, but a pattern of development that favors monied interests over Boston families. In short, everyone who lives in JP has some skin in this game: first they came for the West End, then the South End, now for Yale Terrace... Ω
According to its real estate listing this house was built in 1900. By that standard probably 3/4 of the houses in Boston would be eligible for historic preservation. It's not like this house is somehow a unique cultural artifact. I think trying to preserve it under those auspices is an abuse of the historical preservation system.