BC to draw back curtains on student housing plan
A key sticking point in Boston College's expansion plans may come into focus tomorrow, when neighbors hear how BC responds to their request to house 100 percent of its undergraduates on campus.
At the meeting of the Boston College Community Task Force, the school will unveil its revised plans for dormitories. College officials also have promised to discuss the possible purchase of a nearby apartment building that could be converted into undergraduate housing. The 188-unit high-rise at 2000 Commonwealth Ave. sits along the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and has 282 bedrooms, according to university officials and area residents.
While the property wouldn't be on campus, it could satisfy neighbors who want to see more students in BC-controlled housing, where rowdiness could be curbed more effectively.
"This is an historic opportunity to make sure this part of Brighton is no longer plagued by student rentals," said Eva Webster, a neighborhood activist.
The possible purchase has been rumored for at least three weeks. At the task force's June 4 meeting, the school announced the purchase would be discussed two days later at a board of trustees meeting, but school officials have declined to say what happened at the meeting.
Tomorrow's session will begin at 6:30 p.m. at BC's Yawkey Center.
Housing has been the most contentious issue as BC develops its 10-year Institutional Master Plan. Neighbors have objected to proposals to build on the park-like former Boston Archdiocese property, which BC calls its Brighton campus, and pushed instead for more housing on the Chestnut Hill campus, which does not abut private residences.
At the June 4 meeting, school officials received mixed reactions to revisions involving other aspects of the master plan, including changes to the athletic fields, details of what had been an unspecified "fine arts district," and housing for about 75 Jesuit priests and seminarians.
"Thank you for making changes," said Alex Selvig, a neighbor and former candidate for City Council.
In response to neighborhood concerns, BC officials said they made changes to several proposed structures. They intend to reposition the baseball field and 1,500-seat stands, moving them 90 degrees so lights and home-run balls do not land on residences; increase buffer zones; and limit artificial turf to the baseball field and a softball field - down from three fields. The school also will reduce the size of the athletic center, and reconfigure the nearby 500-space parking garage and move it closer to the center of the campus
"This is a significant change from where you were, and we appreciate that," said Tim Schofield, a task force member.
Others were less satisfied.
"There are too many seats in the baseball field, and too many parking spaces," said Fred Salvucci, a nearby resident who is a transportation researcher at MIT (and was the state's top transportation official in the Dukakis years). "Five hundred spaces would bring traffic to Brighton Center and Foster Street, which are already at capacity."
BC consultant Howard Muise said the 500 garage spaces would replace spaces that would be lost to construction, plus a few additional slots.
Neighbors were equally guarded in their reaction to Jesuit graduate housing on Foster Street, on what is a wooded lot behind three Victorian houses. The university proposes 75 bedrooms and 33 parking spaces arranged around a central courtyard. The three houses would be demolished.
Neighbors voiced concern over whether the 50- to 100-foot buffer zones would be large enough to protect nearby homes, and whether the parking would be adequate for 75 residents.
The fine arts district would consist of a museum and classroom building and a 1,200-seat auditorium. The museum building would be placed at the entrance to the Brighton campus, while the 60-foot-tall auditorium structure would be built on a parking lot farther inside the campus.
Neighbors worried whether the stone wall along Commonwealth Avenue and some old shade trees nearby would be preserved. Linda Eastley, a planner with Sasaki Associates, said that level of detail hadn't been reached. BC spokesman Jack Dunn told the meeting the auditorium would be used primarily for college performances.
The neighborhood's response to the housing proposals unveiled tomorrow night is expected to be more animated.
About 8,600 of BC's 9,000 undergraduates request campus housing, said Dunn. The university has 7,330 dormitory beds, meaning that about 1,270 have to look for off-campus accommodations. The Commonwealth Avenue building would accommodate 564 more beds, if each bedroom bunked two students.
Though buying and converting the building wouldn't completely fill the shortfall, neighbors see it as a step in the right direction.
"If it were a dorm, it would be a more controlled environment," neighbor Sandy Furman said after the last task force meeting. He said that about 40 single- and two-family houses in the Foster Street area are "party houses, which bring noise, trash, and large numbers of kids from the dorms."
Furman has qualms about the university expanding beyond its campus boundaries, and wants to make sure BC would make a payment in lieu of taxes equivalent to what the building's current owners are paying the city.
Abutters also oppose the college's proposal to build housing on the Brighton property, an open area that residents use as a park.
After sharing its housing proposals with the task force, BC will release its revised master plan and the public will have 60 days to comment. Staff at the Boston Redevelopment Authority will then review the plan and decide whether it can go before the BRA board for approval. If not, the plan will be returned to BC for further revisions. 