Mixed-use dev. planned for 35 S. Huntington Ave.

A developer, Doug George of Dorchester, has filed plans for a 45,500-square-foot, mixed-use development at 35 S. Huntington Ave., according to documents filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA).

The BRA was slated to hold a community meeting on the project on Feb. 9 at the Parker Hill Branch Library, after the Gazette deadline.

The BRA in the early 2000s approved a different development team’s plan for the site: a five-story, 44,475-square-foot development with 47 residential units and 42 parking spaces. But that plan never materialized.

George, through Walter Huntington LLC, now proposes a five-to-six-story building with 38 units, consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Of the 38 units, 5 would be priced as affordable, which is the minimum required under the City’s affordable-housing policy. The documents do not say whether the units would be apartments or condominiums.

The proposal also calls for about 7,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and 26 parking spaces in a partially-submerged garage with room for bicycle parking.

The project would need several variances, including for excessive floor area ratio, excessive building height, insufficient usable open space, and insufficient off-street parking.

The project falls in the Mission Hill zoning district, but Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC) chair Kevin Moloney has pointed out that the site resides within JP, according to the United States Postal Service. He said he expects JPNC to weigh-in on the project and that he has been told that another community meeting for the project will take place in JP.

Nick Martin, spokesperson for the BRA, said in an email that, “While the project is right on the border, it is located in Mission Hill. I can’t say at the moment whether the developer will go before JPNC, but as with all Article 80 reviews we welcome public comments from         every interested stakeholder, especially prominent community organizations.”

He said that he had not heard about another community meeting happening in JP, but that he would check. Martin did not return comment before the Gazette deadline.

The S. Huntington Avenue corridor has been the focus of the real estate and construction industry lately, with a 195-unit development being currently built at 105A S. Huntington Ave and the recently completed Olmsted Place, a 196-unit development at 161 S. Huntington Ave. There is also a proposal to turn the former Goddard House nursing home at 201 S. Huntington Ave. into 167 apartments.

The S. Huntington Avenue corridor has also recently underwent a planning study by the BRA. The resulting guidelines are supposed to address the types of developments preferred by the community for the S. Huntington Ave. corridor. The guidelines will be used by the BRA on pending and future projects, and will eventually be codified into zoning.

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