Initial impressions of KIC’s proposal
Jul 21, 2017 · 2 min read
On Wednesday, Kensington Investment Company filed their Project Notification Form (PNF) for 45 Townsend Street (Roxbury) with the City of Boston’s Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), which officially hereby triggers the Article 80 Large Projects review process. The PNF is also our first chance to see in detail what they’d like to build if they got their way.
I haven’t had the chance to review it in detail but some of what stood out to me:
- two high rise buildings, rising 84 feet from the Townsend Street elevation (9 floors) and 127 feet from Townsend Street (12 floors). The taller building — at the top of the hill — would tower over New Academy Estates and Dennison Street. In general, the Roxbury zoning height limit is 45 feet.
- the developer wants to their affordable housing money toward affordable ownership units at Bartlett Place, which is in the Highland Park sub-neighborhood, not the affected one (Townsend / Walnut Ave / H streets)
- the developer proposes a “Zen Courtyard” — hidden between the two buildings in the middle of the site. Are they suggesting that market rate tenants would have an oasis from the rest of Roxbury? That’s what it looks like.
- their “letters of support” include:
- community members who are not direct abutters and are receiving significant funds from the developer’s charitable arm (Lewis Family Foundation);
- the only letters from Townsend Street abutters are from a former resident who sold their property to Kensington and another person who was presumably their tenant;
- some Council of Elders residents and resident who lives at the corner of MLK Blvd., none of whom are “direct” abutters, despite what their letter states
