BC cites legacy of Newton dorms

Boston College is hoping its residence halls in Newton, such as this one at 66 Comm. Ave., will reassure Brighton residents. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

Brighton, meet Newton.

At least that's what Boston College wants in the ongoing struggle over its expansion in Brighton. The residents there almost unanimously oppose BC's plan to construct two undergraduate dormitories on the former Boston Archdiocese land north of Commonwealth Avenue, and to use a recently purchased apartment building about three blocks away as a dorm.

The neighbors argue that students on this so-called Brighton Campus and in the apartments are bound to act more or less the way they now do in privately controlled housing - with loud music, parties, litter, and large groups wandering around late at night.

As BC's expansion proposal has wound through the approval process, officials have been trying to allay those fears by pointing to the other side of the campus. Nestled among Newton's trees and Tudors, there are 875 freshman beds at the Boston College Law School Campus on Centre Street, and 1,700 freshman and sophomore beds on the Upper Campus at Beacon Street and Tudor Road.

"BC has thousands of students living in close proximity to neighbors on our campuses in Newton without incident for decades," said school spokesman Jack Dunn.

Ask the leaders of Newton's government and neighborhood associations, and you get the same picture.

"We hear very few complaints about the Newton dorms, and they directly abut private residences," said Ruthanne Fuller, president of the Chestnut Hill Association. "Dorms just do not have the same set of problems private houses do" when they are rented out to students.

"There may be difficulties, but I don't know of them," said Alderman Lisle Baker, adding, "I don't want to say something so kind about BC that it will make the Brighton folks say, 'If they are so great, you take them.' "

That's pretty much what Brighton resident Lisa Lieberman said when told of Newton's experience.

For 32 years, Lieberman has owned a home on Kirkland Road, where BC students have been renting private residences. "It has been so unpleasant the last few years," she said.

Fuller said she understood why Brighton residents might be nervous about getting dorms in the neighborhood, since Brighton has more students living in private homes, as well as groups walking through neighborhoods to reach the bars and restaurants in Cleveland Circle, but noted that in Newton, "We don't have that issue."

Little resident opposition has materialized around BC's proposal to add more dorms to the Newton campus in the next 10 to 20 years, and most of that has to do with the lack of setback or trees between the buildings and Beacon Street, Fuller said.

Boston College has proposed housing 500 students in two dorms on its Brighton Campus. Another 220 new dorm beds are proposed for the central campus in Chestnut Hill, south of Commonwealth Avenue.

With the purchase of 2000 Commonwealth Ave., a 17-story apartment building three blocks from the Brighton Campus, which BC officials say could house another 564 students, the university's expansion plan would accommodate all of the 1,270 undergraduate students who have been living in private rentals in the neighborhood.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority is collecting public comments through Aug. 22, and staffers will then recommend whether to proceed with existing plans or suggest changes, said Jessica Shumaker, the BRA's senior spokeswoman.

Residents and Mayor Thomas Menino have voiced objections to BC's Commonwealth Avenue acquisition. But Dunn noted that the building already houses 196 BC undergrads, an arrangement underscored by the regular BC shuttle-bus stop there. Most of the remaining apartments are also occupied by students or recent graduates, Dunn said.

Converting the building into a dorm "would just allow the building to go from unsupervised student housing to supervised," he said.

Lieberman seemed to be more concerned with the loss of tax revenue from the university's purchase of the 188-unit building. Because it is an educational institution, BC could remove the building from the city's tax rolls.

"It's just outrageous," she said.

Comments on BC's plans can be e-mailed to john.fitzgerald.bra@cityofboston.gov, or mailed to John Fitzgerald, Boston Redevelopment Authority, 1 City Hall Square, Boston, MA 02201.