The Zoning Board of Appeal on Tuesday approved a developer’s plan to build a three decker on a vacant lot on a street lined with them.
The board unanimously approved Taj Development’s plan for 49 Alpha Rd., off Park Street, approving numerous variances to zoning requirements that date back decades in an attempt to block further construction of the still ubiquitous Boston housing type. In recent months, Boston officials have begun discussing ways to make it easier to build triple deckers again as a way to deal with the city’s ongoing housing crisis.
Taj’s plans technically show a four decker because one unit would sit in the basement. Because of the slope of the 2,450-square-foot lot, which has been vacant since the late 1960s, that unit would have a number of windows to let natural light in. The proposal has no off-street parking.
Taj President Gary Webster and his architect, Dan Fougere, said the building, which would consist of two-bedroom units, would fill in the “missing tooth” on a part of the block that has had three deckers – known as triple deckers in other parts of Boston – since the early 1900s.
Taj bought the vacant lot for $50,000 in 2021, according to Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records.
Nearby residents who opposed the proposal cited all the variances the proposal needed – for number of floors, lot width, overall building size and lack of parking on a lot zoned for a two-family house – and its locationon a narrow street with a sharp curve and frequently full parking spaces as proof the new building would prove a menace that would only further drive longtime residents away.
Arlene Simon, who lives down the street, said there’s a reason the property has been vacant for more than five decades – it’s just too small to allow construction that would not infringe on the privacy of surrounding homes.
But also, its location right at a dogleg turn on Alpha would make it impossible to allow construction vehicles to linger on the block safely. Plus, once construction was done, “parking on the street is impossible as it stands,” she said, adding the street already has constant problems with people parking in front of hydrants.
Mercedes Tompkins, who lives around the corner on Park Street, said she knows people who have sold their houses and moved away because “you can’t really have kids on the street” since it’s so unsafe due to all the drivers speeding down it.
Webster, who said the two immediate neighbors on the left and right of the lot, said most of the cited problems have nothing to do with his project and said all the variances is more a case of the zoning code written to prohibit triple deckers, rather than his project being out of context on the block, that, in fact, the proposal “is entirely consistent with the three families at that end of Alpha Road.”
He added he is looking at ways of minimizing construction disruption on the narrow street, including the possibility of using modular units built off site that could then be assembled in less time on site than traditional construction would require.
