By Gazette Staff
The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC) held its regular monthly meeting on Thursday evening, December 18. Chair Renee Stacey Welch presided over the session that was attended by vice-chair Bernard Doherty and fellow members Peter DeCotis, Danielle Sommer Kieta, Michael Reiskind, David Brewster, Aiko Miller, Alessia Shelley, Carla-Lisa Caliga, Dave Baron, Erin-Ashlei Bailey, Willie Mitchell, Purple Reign, and Sarah Freeman.
Also on hand was Melissa Beltran, the Director of Constituent Services for District 6 City Councillor Ben Weber.
The first order of business was the election of Alcurtis Clark to fill a vacant seat on the council for Area B, a vote that was unanimously approved by the members.
The council then heard the reports from its various committees.
Reiskind, the chair of the Public Service Committee, presented his committee’s report. He told the members that at the Public Service Committee’s December meeting, the committee approved three license requests from The Jeanie Johnston tavern, which is located at 144 South St.: to extend its common victualler and all-alcohol licenses to a closing hour of 2:00 on all seven days of the week (from the present Fridays, Saturdays, and days before holidays); to extend its entertainment license for recorded background music tp 2 a.m. on all seven days of the week; and to extend its license for vocalist, DJ, and karaoke entertainment to 1:30 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and days before holidays from the present 12:30 a.m.
The JPNC unanimously ratified the actions of the Public Service Committee. The pub’s owners now must go before the appropriate city licensing boards to obtain their licenses.
Sommer Kieta presented the report of the Housing and Development Committee. She said that the committee heard from the developers of the proposed housing project at 3326 Washington St. regarding changes they will be making to the affordable housing component of the project.
“This is a new owner who purchased the property in April and who said they would keep the same level of affordability as the original, but now they are saying they can’t because of increased costs,” said Sommer Kieta.
“They are dramatically reducing the amount of affordable units,” Sommer Kieta continued. “What was proposed originally was 10 units of affordable housing with a mix of 30-50-70 percent of AMI, but they are proposing to shift the 30 percent units to voucher-holders (such as Section 8), do a buyout to the city of the 50 percent units (which she said is $300,000 per unit), and keep only the 70 percent-AMI units.
“So essentially,” Sommer Kieta asserted, “they will be creating only three on-site units of affordable housing. This generated a lot of opposition and concern at our meeting, and it was proposed that we write a letter to the BPDA and the Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH) expressing our opposition to the changes, as well as requesting that the matter not advance to a vote in January at the BPDA until there is a full community process.
“It certainly is true that costs are going up, but if we continue to build housing that doesn’t meet the needs of our community, our community won’t exist,” added Sommer Kieta, who also noted the lack of family-size units in favor of studio and one-bedroom units in recent housing developments across JP.
Doherty chimed in. “There is no affordable housing in Jamaica Plain today and there probably won’t be in the future, We need to give our elected officials a speaking-to. I’m concerned with this type of situation and need to meet with our elected officials,” said Doherty, who also noted that many of the coming housing developments are in the light business district where they are replacing businesses that employed local people.
In addition, JP residents on hand at the meeting spoke about the lack of affordable housing in JP and supported sending the letter to city authorities.
The full council approved a motion to oppose the changes and authorized Sommer Kieta to prepare a letter that will be sent by email to the members for their final approval.
Baron presented the report of the Zoning Committee, of which he is the chair. He said there was only one matter at its meeting in December pertaining to the Allandale Farm, 255-257 Allandale St., which he said has been two years in the making.
Baron said the owners are seeking to build a larger greenhouse and a new barn for its retail operations and to relocate the horse stables and chicken coop. Special permits are needed in order to conduct a retail use in a Conservation Protection Subdistrict and to engage in an Agricultural Use (which is forbidden under the ordinance) in a Greenbelt Protection Overlay District.
The Zoning Committee approved the issuance of the permits and the full JPNC unanimously voted to ratify that recommendation. The owner now must go before the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals to obtain the permits.
Baron noted that the upcoming January 7 meeting of the Zoning Committee will take up the matter of the proposed demolition of two buildings presently on the property at 282-294 Hyde Park Ave. to make way for the construction of a new structure consisting of 48 mostly-affordable units with 17 off street parking spaces.
The Jan. 7 meeting also will take up the requests from the owner of 101-103-107 School St., which consists of three, new-construction buildings, in which the owner is seeking to expand the three first-floor units into the basements to enlarge them from the present two-bedroom units into five-bedroom units.
Baron also noted that there will be another meeting of the Zoning Committee on January 21 that will take up four matters that he said mainly are seeking basement and attic expansions.
Freeman briefly presented the report of the Parks Committee, noting that the ongoing campaign for Jamaica Pond and Olmstead Park “has some good energy these days” regarding issues such as conservation, water quality, and the pedestrian/bicycle pathways.
The next meeting of the council is set for Tuesday, January 27.