A second lawsuit has been filed in the Suffolk County Superior Court against the City’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and Wonder Group, LLC over the variances that were granted for the 64 Allandale St. project.
The lawsuit, which was filed by the Springhouse Senior Living Community, requests that the court declare that the ZBA went beyond its authority in granting the variances and that the zoning relief annulled. Springhouse Senior Living Community abuts the proposed project site.
“We’re pleased that our board of directors continues to protect Springhouse residents and the Allandale Woods by taking this regretful, but necessary step,” said Will Holton in a statement on behalf of Springhouse residents.
The City’s Inspectional Services Department, which oversees the ZBA, did not respond to a request for comment.
Jacqueline Nunez of Wonder Group, LLC, said in an email, “64 Allandale was approved by the [Boston Planning and Development Agency] and the ZBA after an exhaustive public process that factored in community input, the merits of the project, and the benefits it would bring to Boston. While I respect the right of our neighbors to pursue whatever legal options they feel entitled to, I do not think attempting to cancel out the public permitting process through the courts is a fair or reasonable way of handling zoning disputes. Should the suit move forward, I fully expect this project to prevail in court.”
A group of abutters to 64 Allandale St., which includes Carl Tremblay, Jacqueline Lees, Stephen P. Bell, Mary Reed, and Elizabeth Bowen Donovan, has also filed a lawsuit seeking to have the variances for the project annulled, as the Gazette previously reported.
Nunez plans to build an 18-unit development at 64 Allandale St., which is a reduction of two units from the original proposal. The project consists of renovating a farmhouse and building several townhouses on a road snaking down towards Allandale Woods. The proposal would have one affordable-housing unit. The other units would likely cost in the million-dollar range.
The project would abut Allandale Woods, which is an “urban wild” of about 100 acres of City- and private-owned land in Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury. The woods is roughly formed by Allandale and Centre streets, the VFW Parkway and Hackensack Road.
The site at 64 Allandale St. is on the border of West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. It is part of the West Roxbury Neighborhood District, as a matter of zoning.
The vast majority of attendees at a meeting last year on the revised proposal spoke out against the project, expressing concerns over density and the affect on Allandale Woods, among other issues. The ZBA granted the project more than 50 variances late last year, a decision Mayor Martin Walsh backed.