For ten years now, David Higgins has been slowly building single-family homes on a three-quarter-acre parcel he owns on Plain Street in Dorchester. On Tuesday, the Zoning Board of Appeal rejected his latest, for what he says would be the seventh and final house on the lot, after which he says he would sell the houses as condos, since they all share common driveways and other facilities.
Board members unanimously rejected his proposal without prejudice, which means he can submit revised plans within a year. However, board members told him that he needs to meet with neighbors who say they’re fed up with ten years of constant construction. And they said he needs to meet with the Planning Department to try to figure out how his unceasing work fits “holistically” with the surrounding neighborhood – through a “site review” of his parcel’s parking, sidewalks, open space and design – and with the Fire Department because his latest plans show a main access route for firetrucks would double as parking spaces.
Typically in Boston, developers with a large piece of land file a single plan showing all their development ideas at once. In 2017, the zoning board approved Higgins’s plans for four single-family houses on the property. But in 2018, he proposed seven two-bedroom townhouses on the parcel, which the zoning board rejected. In 2019, he came back with a plan to replace an existing house on the parcel with a five-condo building, which the board rejected as well.
Since then, he has been slowly building single-family residences – one consisting of an older carriage house that he renovated into a full residence. He rents out the finished ones, he told the board yesterday. He added he plans to finish up landscaping on a remaining house within the next month. And then, he said, it would take him six to eight months to build the last one – the one the board rejected – after which he would then sell each of the houses as stand-alone condos.
Higgins needed zoning-board approval for the final house because he wanted to combine what are legally two lots into one for the house, because the new house would be three stories in an area zoned for no more than 2 1/2 and because it would have less rear and side setbacks than called for in the street’s zoning. Higgins said he would be amendable to reducing the building’s height to eliminate the need for that variance.
“It’s been a long drawn out process,” he acknowledged. “It just takes time.”
Neighbor Martin Sweeney, however, said Higgins has run out of time. He told the board he’s fed up with the construction equipment and debris that’s been sitting on the lot for years – along with the way trees keep getting chopped down.
“It’s been constant construction for more than ten years, with backhoes on dirt piles looking over the fence at every neighbor’s house,” he said. “It would be a crime to continue. It’s akin to him abusing his neighbors and abutters.”
The board initially voted 4-3 to approve Higgin’s request for the lot reconfiguration and variances, which, however, meant the proposal did not pass since state law requires at least 5 votes. Norm Stembridge, Gio Valencia, Hansy Better Barraza and Katie Whewell voted yes; Shamaiah Turner, Alan Langham and Sherry Dong voted no.
The board then considered denial without prejudice, which passed unanimously.
Higgins’s land along Plain Street (marked as 12; from the Boston Tax Parcel Viewer):
