By Michael Coughlin Jr.
Last month, a project at 77 Terrace Street, coined Mission Hill Pathway, that would bring affordable housing and more to city-owned land in the neighborhood was presented to the community at a meeting hosted by the Planning Department.
The project spearheaded by ODJ Dev LLC would include 48 affordable condominiums, more than 2,000 square feet of retail space, over 200 square feet of fitness space, and around 700 square feet of amenity space.
The unit mix includes eight studios, 24 one-bedrooms, 13 two-bedrooms, and three three-bedrooms. The proposal also includes 14 parking spaces and 1:1 residential and retail bike parking.
In addition to the housing component, the project would contain nearly 18,000 square feet of open space and urban wild and over 10,000 square feet of community gardens.
“We have a lot of land that has been out of commission for about 40 years, and so the big idea is, you know how do we take on those challenges, get this land back into productive use and essentially while bringing it back into productive use make sure that it’s characteristic of really Mission Hill neighborhoods which are really great places for people,” said Kevin Maguire, a member of the development team.
Maguire later highlighted the changes in Mission Hill. He said that out of the more than 350 units on Terrace Street that were approved or are under review, only 40 offer affordable homeownership, and none offer new open space amenities for public use.
Moreover, he discussed how the abovementioned changes led to the development team’s vision, which, as stated in the presentation, is a “modern precedent for climate-forward neighborhood infill development.”
Maguire detailed this vision more in discussing plans to enhance the residential character of Parker Street, bring homeownership and retail space on Terrace Street, and improve the public realm on both Parker and Terrace Streets.
After outlining the abovementioned programming for the site, Andres Bernal of JGE showed some images of the site and discussed some challenges. These physical challenges included grade changes, encroachments, canopy preservation, and more.
It should also be noted that the site is slated to undergo remediation, the details of which were covered in a November Mission Hill Gazette story — https://missionhillgazette.com/2024/11/01/mission-hill-pathway-team-holds-another-community-meeting/.
Following the discussion of physical site challenges, Bernal provided an overview of floor plans, renderings, and more, while Shauna Gillies-Smith detailed landscaping plans and public realm improvements.
Eventually, the floor was returned to Maguire, who provided details on the two other significant aspects of the project besides the housing—the community gardens and the open space, coined the Parker Street Wild.
Specifically, the community garden that Maguire indicated would be administered by The Trustees — formerly the Trustees of Reservations — could include 51 in-ground plots, new fencing, accessible paths, and more.
The Parker Street Wild, which would be controlled by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, would include two paths, a kids’ area, an overlook, and an art forum.
“We’re being very careful about limiting activity, where does activity take place, and so controlling activity again to some extent bringing it back to the original program or kind of the guerilla art park concept,” said Maguire.
Finally, Maguire spoke briefly about the project timeline, which includes permitting and funding from 2024 through early 2025 and construction in late 2025 and 2026.
Following the presentation, residents were given the opportunity to ask questions and provide comments.
One resident expressed his worries that the project would actually be built, given the challenges of remediation and securing funding to subsidize the housing.
In response, Maguire said, “I sincerely believe that they [the city] would like to try and get this done because there’s been a lot of promises made and a lot of promises that have not been kept, and a lot of challenges uncovered along the way.”
“We have been successful in the past because we’ve tried to be really open, transparent, and honest with the community, and if we are talking to the city or the state and the community is supporting and talking to the city and the state then the real pressure comes from the community.”
Other residents made comments about the community garden aspect of the project. For example, one resident did not favor the community gardens because, after a period of time, they thought they were not well-kept or aesthetically pleasing elsewhere in the city and preferred either more housing or urban wild.
However, other attendees made it known that they were fans of the planned community garden.
Another topic of discussion was students and the issues residents have faced regarding what they say is poor behavior.
One attendee noted that a portion of the park called “students art forum” in the presentation should drop the word students, so it did not encourage the thought that it was an extension of their campus.
There was also a fear that if the condominiums were not required to be owner-occupied, they could just be rented and eventually taken over by students.
However, Dariela Villón-Maga, another member of the development team, said, “It’s stipulated under both the city and the state that these will be deed-restricted units that require folks that buy them to live in them, and the deed rides for 30 years, and there’s a 20-year renewal that the city can exercise as part of the documents folks will have to sign.”
After other topics, such as training for first-time homebuyers, were discussed and supportive comments were made, the meeting ended.
For more information about the project and to view the recording and presentation from this meeting, visit https://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects/77-terrace-street.