Board rejects nine-unit residential building on Bennington Street in East Boston as too large

The Zoning Board of Appeal this greeting rejected a connection to raze a one-family location astatine 486-490 Bennington St. and regenerate it with a nine-unit building, saying that adjacent though it would beryllium adjacent to a recognition national and crossed the thoroughfare from a cemetery, it was simply excessively large.

The committee denied the requested variances without prejudice successful a 5-1 vote, which means developer MG2 Group tin travel backmost with revised plans wrong a year.

MG2 lawyer Richard Lynds said the existent location is really an anomaly due to the fact that determination are respective multi-family buildings on Saratoga Street down the lot.

But adjacent the usually pro-development BPDA opposed the proposal, saying wide improvement successful East Boston mightiness beryllium getting retired of manus arsenic developers effort to get successful arsenic overmuch arsenic they tin earlier the BPDA finishes its existent survey of however to revise zoning successful the neighborhood. "It's conscionable getting to beryllium excessively big, excessively dense, excessively fast," BPDA planner Jeff Hampton told the board.

The mayor's bureau supported the proposal, saying the main interest of residents seemed to beryllium MG2's archetypal plans for ground-floor retail space, which the developer agreed to regenerate with 6 parking spaces and a workplace apartment. BTD besides supported the proposal, saying that though the 6 spaces was excessively fewer nether the lot's zoning, the tract is adjacent the Wood Island T stop.

But committee subordinate Eric Robinson, an architect, moved to cull the connection without prejudice, calling saying it was conscionable excessively dense and did not acceptable successful precise good with different buildings successful the area.