Sheila Dillon, housing chief for the city of Boston, gestures during a tour of Washington Street with Rose Center Fellows. March 2015.
Development

D.C. Nonprofit to Recommend New Vision for Washington Street

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As the city continues to promise a long-delayed planning study of the Washington Street corridor, an outside nonprofit is stepping in with a close look at the stretch. Fellows from the Rose Center for Public Leadership have been in the neighborhood this week and plan to share their findings in a public forum on Thursday. This year's Daniel Rose Fellows began visiting Boston Monday. The city was chosen along with Pittsburgh, Seattle and Omaha as a focus of study, according to a press release from the Mayor's Office. The group will make a public presentation of their findings on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in the Boston Redevelopment Authority board room on the 9th floor of City Hall.

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Development

Project Would ‘Announce Egleston as a Great Place to Live, Work and Play’

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3200 Washington Street as proposed. Looking south. Credit: 3190 Washington St. LLC

A three-man development team plans to build the largest housing development in the history of Egleston Square; a community it describes as "a vibrant [one] that owes its vibrant identity to its diversity to ethnic, racial, age and economic patterns." 3190 Washington Street LLC, managed by Justin Iantosca with partners Paul Iantosca and Dan Mangiacotti, has acquired the 3/4 acre that includes Economy Plumbing and E+J Auto at Washington Street, Montebello and Iffley Roads. A  three building, $20 million, 76 unit development is proposed, to include two  5-to-6 story buildings facing Washington Street.

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Plan for 3383-3389 Washington St., former home of Royal Fried Chicken.
Development

Neighborhood Committee Okays Fried Chicken Place’s Mixed-Use Transformation

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A stretch of Washington Street most famous as the former home of Royal Fried Chicken has taken two more steps toward becoming 21 apartments and two new retail spaces. The plan for 3383-3389 Washington St. won approval Wednesday from the zoning committee of the JP Neighborhood Council. In late January, the project passed muster with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, according to the Gazette. But not all the red tape is done.

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Development

Goodbye Fried Chicken, Hello Penthouses

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When it rains it pours on Union Avenue. A month after a contentious public meeting about one 20-unit mixed use development at Washington and Green Streets, a second one is proposed about two blocks away at 3383-3389 Washington Street. But rainbows hovered over the latter at the Boston Redevelopment Authority Small Project Review hearing last Thursday as many of the same Union Avenue residents who opposed the first were positive about the second. Boston Property Development proposes a four-story building with 21 apartments and two ground-floor commercial spaces on a 17,000 square foot lot wedged between Schell Printing and Express Pizza opposite the BMS retail warehouse. The $3.5 million dollar development would feature a fourth-floor penthouse set back from the lower floors.

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Development

Plan For 20 Condos at Washington and Green Deeply Divides Neighbors

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At the most recent public meeting on a development for 3371 Washington St. and 197 Green St., the air was thick with frustration from both those opposed and those in favor — although it appeared the opponents were in the majority. Owner Walter Craven wants to build two long, four-story, brick-faced multi-family condos on an L shaped lot. The space is currently a hodgepodge of a parking lot, light industry and a woodframe house built before the Civil War. Union Avenue neighbors want Craven to build two three-story condominium buildings that are much shorter and set farther away from three houselots on that street.

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Morning Memo

Coyote Relaxes on Arborway Porch

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#74113251 / gettyimages.com

Hello neighbors. Here's your Morning Memo for Monday, Sept. 22. Coyote Sightings: Of course you already know JP is home to coyotes. But on Friday, a resident reported one lounging on an Arborway porch, according to Universal Hub.

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Top countries of origin for foreign-born Bostonians
Neighborhood Life

Meet Your New Favorite Map of Jamaica Plain

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Who says nothing good ever came from the Boston Redevelopment Authority? Behold your new favorite map of Jamaica Plain and Boston. This map shows the top countries of origin for foreign-born Bostonians. As you'd expect, the Dominican Republic is far and away number one for Jamaica Plain. My Dominican acquaintances tell me JP has always felt like home.

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