The Board of Selectmen has grabbed residents’ attention with a letter about a Monday meeting (June 26, 7:05pm) at which it and the Planning Board will discuss a proposed 6-story (including underground garage), 95-unit housing complex on a small road off of Linden Street. Neighbors reached out to us to air their concerns about what such a development could mean to an already congested and sometimes dangerous traffic area, and they’re sure to show up at the meeting Monday to make those concerns public. (UPDATE 6/26/17: Boston Globe report on that meeting here)
We’d heard scuttlebutt several years ago about a developer’s plans to snap up and tear down homes on Delanson Circle to create condos or apartments, and now it appears that such a vision has made major progress. The Meeting on Monday will be to address a 40B site eligibility request, which would be a precursor to formal 40B affordable housing application.
Architectural firm Embarc Studio explains in its “project narrative” how the structure would feature a common courtyard and community room, and be built in such a way to emphasize the horizontal nature of the development and play down its height. The description also references the development being “transit-oriented,” in that it is located within walking distance of a commuter rail station, perhaps suggesting that the development would not necessarily overwhelm the area with new vehicles. 19 of the proposed units would be classified as affordable, with the rest going for market rates.
While Wellesley could badly use more affordable housing in light of the steady stream of teardowns that result in new high-end properties that are out of reach pricewise for so many, the influx of so many new housing units in one fell swoop would certainly bring its own set of issues with it.
Is this an April Fool’s joke?
That space would be a great location for a higher density housing unit due to its close proximity to all things Wellesley but 6 stories and 95 units?
Also wouldn’t this impact the elementary school realignment/closure situation?
Thanks for the information. We don’t live that close but it would impact everyone in the Sprague/College Heights neighborhood.
I do not live anywhere near this location but I plan to attend the meeting on Monday to express some concerns.
This building of 95 apartments will have 182 bedrooms.
The five homes it replaces has about 3 bedrooms each for about a total of 15 bedrooms. The proposed 182 bedrooms is comparable to having another 60 (SIXTY) three bedrooms homes in this space. This is too dense.
Also if 30 of the garage spaces are tandem, they will need to be held by people in the same family (i.e. able to move one car out of the way to park another). This means that there is fewer than one space per apartment remaining. If each home has more than one car, certainly reasonable in Wellesley, where will the other cars park? Will the spaces in the garage be allocated or will it be first come first served? My understanding is that there is no overnight street parking through the winter. Where will they go?
Only 34 of the units are one bedroom apartments, so I imagine that there could be quite a few school -age children in the remaining 148 bedrooms.
This is quite concerning as well.
Don’t we have zoning regulations to avoid situations like this?
The DiSchino family gsve their blood and sweat for this town and after city planner Robert DiSchino has passed they can’t carry it on so unless you plan on giving the family 5 million you should let the project go forward.
Lets talk parking the massive massive train parking lot is across the street this holds hundreds of cars a few more cars will not matter to the traffic flow. There is already a large apt complex down the street and it works.
So don’t rob a local family selling off there part due to the death of their patriarch.
This has ZERO impact on the Sprague school a mile away on oak st.
Crest road has zero impact as that will not have any buildings on it. The upper hill will be a communal area and they will have added more trees
That makes no sense.
– No one, even the DiSchinos, has a right to build indiscriminately if it would negatively impact the Town–much less an entitlement to the profits they hope to reap from a commercial development.
– The Tailby commuter rail lot provides parking for about 225 cars. Linden Street already sees significant traffic, both to the Tailby lot and Linden Square. Garaging 84 cars across the street from the Tailby lot will certainly impact traffic, even with the ramp on Hollis Street (sorry Hollis Street neighbors!). The fact that there is already an apartment complex on Hollis should make it less feasible to add another apartment complex, not more.
– Sprague will be impacted by enrollments, of course. Crest Road will be impacted by traffic, a looming six-story structure, and lower property values, not to mention the aggravation of a major construction project in their back yards.
I am honestly shocked at the gall of the size and scope of this project.
“Don’t we have zoning regulations to avoid situations like this?” 40B projects are not subject to most local zoning regulations, and towns that have not reached the 10% affordable housing threshold cannot outright disallow a 40b project.