By Michael Coughlin Jr.
The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) Board tabled a project at its meeting last month that would create an abundance of open space and two mixed-use buildings with life science and retail space at 500 Huntington Ave., which currently houses Wentworth Institute of Technology’s Sweeney Field and other structures.
Jack Hart, an attorney representing the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) and its Board of Trustees, called the project a good one but raised concerns and requested that it be tabled for 30 days.
“This is due to unresolved issues and concerns related to air intake, groundwater, vibration, traffic, and other matters,” said Hart.
“As many of you know, the MFA has over 500,000 pieces of art — many in the basement and lower basement of the MFA — and we are concerned with any significant impact.”
While Hart broached the abovementioned concerns, he emphasized that the MFA would like and hope to support the project but could not at present.
“We pledge to work collaboratively with the BPDA and the Huntington Development Group (the developer) to expel these issues and delay any concerns and hopefully support this project 30 days from now,” said Hart.
Later in the hearing, after the project which would bring pedestrian and bike connections through the site to places like Ruggles Station (from the MFA Green Line stop) and enable the installation of the proposed Roxbury to Fenway Connector along Ruggles Street received a lot of support during public testimony, Clayton Turnbull CEO of Waldwin Development responded to the MFA’s concerns.
Turnbull noted that the MFA’s concerns were communicated to the development team in the days before the BPDA Board Meeting.
Moreover, he indicated they had responded to the MFA with a letter. He also addressed the BPDA Board, saying, “We will commit to you, whatever the pleasure of your board. The issues that they’ve raised are very solvable—they’re kind of typical with construction development that we’ve done.”
“There’s nothing that we heard that is monumental, but they wanted an opportunity to hire their consultants to help them along to make sure that all their t’s are crossed and I’s are dotted. So, I think that we’re definitely in agreement to give them an opportunity to feather that out.”
Following Turnbull’s statements, the Board’s Chair, Priscilla Rojas, made it clear that she liked and supported the project but thought the request to table the item for 30 days was reasonable.
“I am very assured by your previous comments on the solvability of these things, and I think in just the spirit of risk management and giving everybody just a little bit of time — I know this just happened in the past few days — but I would like to honor the request made by the MFA,” said Rojas.
Ultimately, all BPDA Board Members voted to support a motion to table the discussion until September’s Board Meeting, except for Ted Landsmark, who abstained as he is a Trustee Emeritus of the MFA.
September’s BPDA Board Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 12th. An agenda has yet to be posted at the time of this writing. For more information on how to view the meeting, visit https://www.bostonplans.org/news-calendar/calendar/2024/09/12/bra-edic-board-meeting.
To learn more about the project, visit the project webpage at https://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects/wentworth-500-huntington-avenue. It should be noted that this proposal has roots dating back to 2013. A similar project in the area — Planned Development Area (PDA) #93 — was approved but did not end up going forward.
Notably, the current proposal from Huntington Development Group differs from the previous project in that the maximum height has decreased from 280 feet to 254 feet, the number of vehicular parking spaces has been reduced from 410 to 355, and the amount of publicly accessible open space has increased from around 57,600 square feet to about 70,000 square feet.
“We’re looking forward to making this happen, so totally in agreement with your decision,” said Turnbull.