Is Fox Point "a neigborhood under assault?"
Hundreds of units are under construction from South Main to Gano.
Corner of Brook and Wickenden where neighbors are fighting a 75-unit apartment building.
Fox Point and Wickenden Street are becoming a high-density “growth corridor” months before the city council even holds a hearing on the city’s 10-year new comprehensive plan.
Fox Point Neighborhood President Lily Bogosian, who opposes the new comprehensive plan, said the “neighborhood is under assault.”
Here’s the latest on three Wickenden projects between Brook and East Streets slated to add close to 100 units. That number doesn’t include 141 units under construction, just south of Wickenden and 133 units at 153 Gano Street.
A 14-day demolition notice was posted July 15 on 381 Wickenden Street, the site of the former Recovery Connection, closed after a Medicare fraud investigation. The developer, Bahman Jalili, the former owner of Pizza Pi-er, wants to build 14 apartments plus commercial space. Jalili has already gotten administrative approval to exceed a lot restriction and has filed for a zoning change.
The prior owner, Michael Brier, was convicted for tax fraud in 2013. Then this month, the U.S. Attorney announced that Brier had pleaded guilty to Medicare fraud. He faces up to 10 years in prison in the second case. (This post corrects errors in the FPNA newsletter that incorrectly described the timing of the Medicare case.)
“It’s not a bad house they’re tearing down,” said FPNA board member Vin Scorziello, “just a house with a bad history.”
Just down the street, the former Red Bridge Antiques at 418 Wickenden Street is vacant. It closed June 30. Red Bridge’s former owner, Richard Kahan, said he believes the property is headed for demolition and apartments. “That’s my hunch,” he said.
Kahan had been selling antiques on the street for 35 years. Several of his customers wished him farewell on social media.
Then in Superior Court Monday Judge Richard Lamphear declined to issue a stay to further delay a 75-unit apartment building at 269 Wickenden. Earlier in the day, Judge Lamphear had heard arguments opposing and defending zoning changes for the project.
Dylan Conley, who represents Fox Point Capital developer Dustin Dezube, told the judge that “time was of the essence.” The parties are awaiting Judge Lamphear’s decision on the appeal by neighbors.
The three Wickenden properties are all listed in the proposed Fox Point Historic District being promoted by Ward 1 Councilman John Goncalves.
“This is exactly why we need an overlay,’’ Goncalves said using the technical name for the district.
Just two weeks ago, Goncalves launched a petition drive to collect 150 signatures from the owners of the 300 properties in the new district. At his kick-off meeting, Goncalves said no property in the city’s other historic districts has ever been torn down for development.
Two blocks south of Wickenden, two other multi-story apartment projects are already underway.
A Dezube company is finishing renovations of the old Tockwotton nursing home at East Street and George M. Cohan Boulevard. That project will bring another 75 units to the neighborhood.
Then, next to Holy Rosary Church, work continues on a mixed-use, five-story apartment building with a child-care center and 66 units. That’s phase 1; phase 2 has another 61 units.
These two buildings are I 195 projects, like two more slated for South Water Street. As part of the 195 District, they are outside of city control and the Comprehensive Plan. (See city development map.)
Regarding the new 10-year plan, Bogosian testified that the zoning changes underlying the plan would favor “construction where infrastructure is already stressed.”
Further, she argued, the plan, which includes a designation of Wickenden as a high- density growth corridor, “is pitched to outside developers in spite of a vibrant local business economy and neighborhood objections.”
She did not prevail. The Planning Commission unanimously approved the plan June 18 and sent it to Council for a vote this fall.
