December 2011 Eight Streets Neighborhood Association Meeting

Announcements

• Ringgold Park is looking for board members. Please email friends @ ringgoldpark.org to volunteer or get more information.
• Week of December 26 - all trash collection, including downtown Boston (us) will be delayed one day. For that week Wednesday morning will be trash/recycling pickup, andSaturday morning will be trash pickup.

5 and 21 Dwight st

Rob Ferris, Developer, gave us an update on the construction of 5 Dwight street, which is now in it's final phases. He also asked for out support for a groundwater recharge plan for 21 Dwight street. This includes a standard recharging system to be placed in the rear of the building. The plans had already been seen and approved by the Groundwater Trust and Boston Water & Sewer. A letter was send to the ZBA supporting the groundwater plan.

251 Shawmut Avek

Sean Kennedy and Dave Watson, new owners of 251 Shawmut, came before the neighborhood to seek support for changes to the building as part of a complete renovation. Included are

1. Change of use - convert the first floor and basement commercial space to residential.
2. Add matching 'commercial looking' windows to the first floor Milford side of the building (to match the Shawmut side)
3. Addition of roof deck
4. (Request to add bay windows was listed on the the agenda, but the city rejected that addition prior to the meeting)

There was plenty of discussion on the building and the changes presented. The neighborhood had no problems with any of the cosmetic changes. Most of the discussion centered around the request to remove the commercial space.

251 Shawmut is in a small commercial zone of Eight Streets on Shawmut ave. Residents feel the commercial spaces bring vibrancy and 'livability' to the neighborhood, and did not want to lose the commercial opportunity that the existing storefront provided us. There were some residents who supported the zonging change were more concerned that the project would not happen without the change in zoning, and didn't want the building to continue to remain vacant.

By majority vote of residents present, the neighborhood voted to not oppose the cosmetic changes, but to oppose the change of occupancy. A Letter was sent to ZBA.

Meeting adjourned. Next meeting Tuesday, January 4th