Development

Plan JP/Rox: Green Street Needs Commercial-Business Mix on Ground Floors

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The once-in-a-generation planning effort that goes by the name "Plan JP/Rox" has started to produce specifics about what our neighborhood will look like. Here's the vision for Green Street. Green Street: This area between Amory and Washington Street is identified as neighborhood commercial center of mixed use buildings and "21st century commercial business" spaces are proposed for the rear of the BMS paper company at 3390 Washington Street  and at Amory Street next to Bartlett Square I where the Interstate Trucking yards are located. "The most important part of this," said John Dalzell, a senior architect for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, "is a need for mixed commercial business on the ground floor. Some business are new and don't have that obnoxious quality about them."

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Development

Plan JP/Rox: Egleston Square Is Defined by Access to Parks

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The once-in-a-generation planning effort that goes by the name "Plan JP/Rox" has started to produce specifics about what our neighborhood will look like. Here's a vision for Egleston Square. Egleston Square: "It's characterized by access to parks," said John Dalzell, a senior architect for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, "but what also seems to be emerging is a new commercial area northerly of the square." That's toward Westminster Avenue

Seven scattered development areas are proposed for multi-family residential buildings over retail or cultural ground floors ranging in height from 4-6 stories. One suggested new residential location includes 3012 Washington Street  at Westminster Avenue, owned by the Eizabeth Stone House.

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Development

Plan JP/Rox: Jackson Square Could Be Gateway With 15-Story High Rises

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The once-in-a-generation planning effort that goes by the name "Plan JP/Rox" has started to produce specifics about what our neighborhood will look like. Here are the ideas being put forward for Jackson Square. Jackson Square: "A neighborhood gateway that anchors a lot of businesses," said John Dalzell, a senior architect for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. "It has a clear residential character along Columbus Avenue [and] that is where housing focus should be." There are five areas in the plan with a high spine from Dimock Street along Columbus Avenue.

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City Services

Photos: Library Addition Makes Progress

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Work continues on the long-sought renovation of the JP Branch of the Boston Public Library. Neighbors met with the city on Thursday to hear about the progress and discuss the hassles attendant to a big project being undertaken near the center of the neighborhood. We stopped by on Friday for a few photos of the construction. The Friends of the Library are also documenting the project. Its Facebook page is a good place to start to connect with the group.

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Real Estate

Yale Terrace Group Gains Support in Effort to Revoke Permit at Bicon Dental

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In the latest chapter in a long, strange saga, neighbors of Bicon Dental Implants won a small victory. Calling the matter "unique and a challenge," Dave Barron, chairman of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council Zoning Committee opened a hearing at its Wednesday meeting to consider whether Bicon Dental Implants at 501 Arborway should have its certificate of occupancy revoked. In a years-long struggle with the company, the Yale Terrace Association and Gerard O'Connor, acting for himself "seek to untangle the confusing, incomplete and inaccurate regulatory history of the property" as its Dec 14, 2015 zoning appeal states. Recusing himself as a member of the JPNC Zoning Committee and moving to the opposite side of the room, O'Connor (a resident of Yale Terrace, a private way with nine homes on it) said "We are looking for support from the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council to require Debbie LLC (the owners of the Bicon building) to put right in the regulatory files a clear and accurate record of what  is" happening inside 501 Morton Street (also listed as 123 Morton Street). "The current uses are dental clinic, clinical laboratory and professional school," O'Connor said.

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Business

Pine Village Preschool Moving Into Old Harvest Co-Op Building on South Street

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From groceries to little kids: the old Harvest Co-Op building on South Street will be empty no more come September. Joana Araujo, director of the Pine Village Preschool, confirmed to Jamaica Plain News that the school will be moving its classrooms at the First Baptist Church (633 Centre St.) to a roomier space at the former Harvest Co-Op location at 57 South St. Pine Village Preschool (PVP) is a Spanish Language Immersion school for toddlers and preschoolers with two locations in Jamaica Plain, with the second in St John's Episcopal Church on Revere Street. "Our Mission is to educate and nurture each child’s individuality within a culturally diverse, bilingual community so that every child develops a true passion for learning and an ability to engage in any environment and community," says the school's website. Araujo, originally from the Azores, immigrated to the United Sates 14 years ago.

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Transportation

‘A Wasteland to Walk On’ — Residents Envision a Better Washington, Columbus

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"Connecting people with places" was the theme of the fourth workshop in the Plan JP/Rox held on Thursday at English High School. Of all the workshops in of the planning process this was most egalitarian; low income or high income, hotel maid or money manager, everyone uses the sidewalks, the streets or some form of transit to get to work, to school and home. It was also the most interactive and personal; over 100 sat around tables and marked on maps how they get around their neighborhood to their special places or how they got to that night's meeting. "Mobility. Getting around.

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Real Estate

Olmsted Place Developer Objects to Adjacent Development of Goddard House

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Here's a new NIMBY trend: one developer doesn't like the development of another developer right next door. Curtis Kemeny, CEO and president of Boston Residential Group, which just completed Olmsted Place Apartments at 161 South Huntington Ave., wrote and hand-delivered a letter to the Boston Redevelopment Authority on Dec. 7 "strongly object[ing]" to the proposed plan for redevelopment of adjacent Goddard House; adding that "significant further discussion is required before it should be allowed to proceed." A BRA spokesperson said the matter was a "simple misunderstanding." Goddard House was a nursing home that closed in 2012.

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Real Estate

BRA Approves General Heath Square Apartments

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On Thursday the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) approved the General Heath Square Apartments, a joint venture of Jamaica Plain NDC and Back of the Hill CDC. This will be a 47-unit apartment building on a three-fourths acre site at Heath and Bromley streets that is currently vacant lots. The entire project is 56,290 square feet with an estimated total project cost of $17,400,000, according to the BRA. The entire building will be affordable units with a mix of one-, two-  and three-bedroom apartments. Two-thousand square feet of the project will be for  community and office space, including covered bicycle and car parking spaces.

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