June 17, 2021

Dear Royal Street Neighbors,             

Thank you to everyone who came to the first abutters meeting sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services. 

For those that did not come, I am a neighbor on Royal Street.  I live at 47 Royal Street, with my partner Victoria and our 7-year-old daughter.  These are my own opinions, and I am not advocating for any group or special interest.

I am writing to remind everyone, that anyone in the neighborhood, regardless of if you are an owner or renter, or even temporary in the neighborhood, can have a huge impact on this proposed project at 5-7 Hooker Street. 

Numbers of people on the street have told me in the past, that they thought they had no say in these matters, but the fact is that you do.  Your voice matters as much as anyone’s, and it matters far more than the developer’s voice.

This new 5-7 Hooker Street project is put together by what looks like 2 out-of-town investors whose primary interest is to pull close to $2.5 Million in equity from Hooker Street, Royal Street, and Empire Street, in exchange for developing out some of the only deeded green space on these streets.

These investors / developers are asking for variances from the city. 

This means, what they want to do is not allowed by zoning code, and neighbors can prevent it if they object, or support the variances if they approve. 

Variances are not granted automatically, so if neighbors protest, the variances likely won’t be granted at all.  Sometimes, the voice of just one neighbor will change the direction of the whole project.

On the flip side, if nobody speaks up at all, the Zoning Board of Appeals, neighborhood groups, and the BPDA will likely approve the plans, and allow the project the way the investors and developers want it to be.

Realizing that Allston homes are unaffordable for families, that there is a housing shortage, and that people ultimately need a nice place to live; increased density is required to sustain the neighborhood restaurants, and stores that are opening now and to keep our neighborhood thriving.

I am hoping neighbors will join me in voicing their own opinions to the city, and the neighborhood forces.  From the last meeting, it was very interesting to see the differences in opinion between neighbors on design and layout, and listen to all of the concerns.

I am going to outline my own view of the proposal and offer my own opinions, as well as an avenue for you, and your neighbors, family, roommates, and friends to have your voice heard.

In a nutshell, the investor can renovate the house by right, without neighborhood approval, but just about anything else will require variances, which means it needs your approval.  Your silence, if offered instead, will be considered your approval by the city.

Please reach out to me and I can start an email list. 

You can reach me at
richard@royal-street.com
Richard Rogers
47 Royal Street, Allston, MA 02134

The original property is a 2 family house built on a lot that is too small for even a 2 family house.

Zoning requires 5,000 SF and that house is built on 3,469 sq ft.   This is not unusual for the neighborhood.

Next to the house is a lot. Separately deeded as UNUSABLE LAND
“132 - Other Residential / RES LAND (UNUSABLE)”

The unusable land is a total of 2,758 sq ft
Also a garage is located on a separate 1,974SF lot.

Because of this classification, UNUSABLE the buffer space between the 2 family and 3 family zoning provides much needed relief from the dense end of Royal Street.  Also that land enjoys a tax bill of just $451 per year, and anchors Royal Street with open space and trees, and provides a beautiful yard for families and children to play.

To build additional units, (more than 2) the owner would need to combine these lots to make one big lot. By doing this, there is still not enough land to build more than 2 units without variances.. 

Until 2 recent successive sales, this was a family home occupied by the same owners, well known in the neighborhood.

This new investor wants to eliminate the open space, combine the lots to make one building lot and 'no green space' lot, and then build a huge 9 condo, 4-story building even though with the combined lots, still only 2 units are allowed under current zoning.

These owner of record is:
1        Mike Meskin
2        Akbar Ocia

Mike Meskin is a rated by Google as a 1-star realtor, achieving 28 reviews, all 1 star over the last 3 years.

Here are some of the most recent reviews:

"I wish there was a way to leave NO star. These people are scammers, taking advantage of students. "

"This company is a nightmare to deal with. Any problem you come to them with they take months to respond and when the response finally comes they refuse to acknowledge it."

"Hands down the worst real estate agency I have ever dealt with"

"This is one of the worst companies in Boston. I had a mouse in my closet and all they did was look and say "yup, there's a mouse here" and then never called any sort of pest control,"

"Complete scam. Will steal your security deposit for fabricated reasons. Unprofessional and inexperienced staff who are completely miserable to deal with. Stay away."

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The owner has proven bad faith by leaving this otherwise inhabitable house vacant and doing no maintenance.

In the winter, before they even put together a proposal, they did not shovel the sidewalk and were cited by the city, but still never cleaned it up.

PICTURE OF SNOW JANUARY 30
 

FEBRUARY 11 un-cleared snow

FEBRUARY 15th Cited for un-cleared snow

Now that summer has come, they have never cut the lawn, pruned the hedge, or even picked up the mail or the citations that they received from the city of Boston.

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At the last abutter's meeting various points of compliance were made, including:

- Proper notice was not given to abutters
- They had not posted a sign required by ISD

Since then, they posted the sign but it is now completely obstructed by overgrowth so it is impossible for neighbors to know.  The sign is supposed to be conspicuous.

This demonstrates further bad faith.

At the last abutter's meeting the owner's reputation was called into question due to his years of history as a bad property manager who cannot, or will not do maintenance.

This has been reinforced by his actions and inactions at the property where under his stewardship it has fallen into disrepair.

No doubt they will point next to the condition of the property as another reason for the need to level and rebuild, however, the condition is entirely due to their own neglect.

Completing this project could mean they pocket about $2.5 Million from developing out Royal Street’s deeded gateway of green space.  This was deeded this way to provide relief and a gateway between the denser 3F 4000 zone and the 2F 5000 zone where the existing house stands.

When they leave Royal Street and Hooker Street with this big bag of money, and when they are gone, there will be no opportunity to get back the open space on the corner, or the setback from the street. 

These investors will likely leave behind un-affordable condos that will be bought by investors, and rented out to students.

Once the back yard is paved over, and they cut down the trees, and build on the open space, if families do move in, there will be no green grassy yard for their kids to play.  Only one 8 x 18 foot parking spot.

Have a look at the corner of Hooker and Royal Street now.

You will see a gateway between the density zones. 

At the first abutters meeting, I proposed using the Empire Street extension for parkland to offset the removal of the green space if the project is approved in any manner. 

Councilor Liz Breadon's office  took up the cause to attempting to reclaim the land, but it is deeded as a private way after Lincoln Street allowing the abutters to claim up to the center line for their own use, even though there are hydrants, and utility poles on that part of the street.

Because of this, should this be approved, I would like to propose as an offset to the permanent removal of the deeded gateway green space, that the developer fund the implementation of the Green Streets program for the intersection of Hooker and Royal Street as shown below.

This type of greening of the street will also make it just 2 or 3 strides to cross the street, rather than trying to cross such a large mouth on the street.

Gerald Autler from the BPDA was not able to fund this project.  You will all recognize his renderings as the intersection of Royal and Coolidge and Holman and Coolidge. 

This was estimated at about $300 for 4 intersections and this would be for just two mini-parks at one intersection as shown in my offset proposal.

There are numbers of things that can blight a neighborhood, including raffiti, unattended property, and trash which are part of it, but outdated infrastructure also contributes.

Because of the low density, and the fact that the neighborhood was one of the first to be electrified in the country, we now have overhead wires on 45 foot wooden poles that carry utilities for Eversource, RCN, Comcast, and Verizon.

Once density increases, the need to remove the overhead wires increases.  Some houses in the neighborhood have dozens of unused cable and phone drops and nearly all houses have an electrical drop from the pole.

Utilities can be buried for about $1M per mile. 

Based on this, a back of the napkin figure for burying the utilities in the immediate area and eliminating those poles would be: $250,000.

Because this is not our own Allston neighbor proposing this project; or a new owner occupant ready to move to Hooker Street or Royal Street to start a family and rent out one unit; or even a neighborhood organization that is proposing this development, but instead a group of outside investors, it is important not to settle for less in any way.

To get approved for these variances, there should be some permanent offset for the community.

Here are some of the variance they want neighbors to approve:

• Increased height
  they want 4 stories and to exceed the maximum 35' height for the neighborhood
• Combining the lots to eliminate green space
  they want to convert the existing UNUSABLE LOT to a building lot
• Inadequate setback
  they want to build too close to the street and too close to houses next to them.
• Inadequate parking
  They want reduce the required parking ration to 1
• Not enough rear yard setback
• Not enough side yard setback
• Not enough front yard setback
  

Neighbors have already derailed a similar and smaller proposal to develop out the other gateway green space at 37 Royal Street and Hooker Street, directly across the street. 

Neighbors spoke up. Those voices, and the lack of support from the city councilors at the time, as well as recommendations to instead renovate the existing property from the ACA and other neighborhood groups lead to a denial by the Zoning Board of Appeals.

If this proposal for 9 condos at 5-7 Hooker Street is stopped, the owner has the option to do a project just like 53 Coolidge, where 2 luxury condos fetched over $2M combined.

Someone can still build out 2 large units in a gut renovation of this house, or put up just 2 beautiful townhouses with enough land for kids to play, and they would have at least a $¼ million in equity or more when complete.

This type of gain would be enough profit for most people. It would create a great place to bring up a family, with the ability to rent out one unit by the owner and have a nice equity cushion.

The current absentee owner investor wants to combine the lots and take away the UN-USABLE STATUS on the green space forever and has made no offers to off-set these permanent actions.    

If these owners cannot get approval for the 9 units, they will likely resell the property to a more reasonable developer, and still pocket a huge short term gain. Enough to set most people up with real retirement account. 

Giving Back:
How can the new investor owners give back in exchange for neighborhood support of their variances if they are allowed to build? 

How can Hooker Street and Royal Street and Lower Allston be compensated for the lost green space?

How about giving back some of what they are taking from the neighborhood?

While suggested, and taken into consideration, it does not look like the developers have proposed the following:

- Condo Docs should specify 66% owner occupied or greater.

- Parking should be deeded to the unit, not separately.

- Condo owners should  have a 1 car commitment and the address should be denied Resident Parking Permits.

- A shadow study needs to be performed.

- A wind study needs to be performed

- A ban for on-street parking of ANY construction related vehicle should be honored.

I would hope people in the neighborhood would either outright object to the construction of the 3rd unit, or to insist that if there is a 3rd unit it must be deed restricted to owner occupied.

"NEW OWNER HAS A PROBLEM PROPERTY"

5-7 Hooker Street

• The owner has what is classified as a PROBLEM PROPERTY where it is cited regularly by the city's Inspectional Services Department for litter, uncut grass, yard parking, and other violations that are propagated by the owner. This owner was cited at least 15 times since buying the house.
• The owner has not  posted contact info as required by the city
• The new owner has left the grass un-cut, and the property in poor condition for months allowing invasive weeds to propagate throughout the neighborhood..
• The building is VACANT.
• Basic maintenance has not been performed on the property.
• Snow is not shoveled in the winter.
• Improperly executed notification for ALL abutters meetings.
• The required signage for owners with applications appealing zoning refusals is supposed to be conspicuous.  Not only did the owner post the sign after, and not before the first abutters meeting, but by the second meeting the sign was completely obscured by overgrowth, meaning they still did not comply with the signage regulation.

Neighbors will also have 1 year of constant construction managed by a 1-star operator.

The investors will walk away with an estimated $2.5 million in profit.

With all of that money being taken out of Royal Street, let's work on keeping some of it here! 
 

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Here is what I will propose when I write my own letters:

The current owner and developer should not be allowed to combine the lots and eliminate the deed restricted green space, in order to build a 9-unit condo-complex, or build any structure that requires the requested variances unless those condos are deed restricted as owner occupied, and the proponent commits to some other significant and ever-lasting off-set for Royal Street and Hooker Street that will contribute to the enjoyment of all residents, such as burying the utilities for area and/or funding the Green Streets program for the Royal Street and Hooker Street intersection..

Without the deed restriction, at least on 51% of units, only two units should be allowed and they should be developed on the existing parcel without combining the lots so the unusable lot can remain green space. 

If the developer agrees to deed restrict 51% or more units as owner occupied, and the development proceeds over objections from the neighborhood, the following conditions should be met:

- Weekday construction and no off hours staging, parking or leaving of equipment in resident parking zones.
- Pull proper permits for parking or rent off site staging area 
- No after hours work
- Traffic calming measures are needed.
- A 1-car commitment and no RPP for the address
- The height should not exceed 35 feet
- The condo association should not be managed by the proponent, and should be a professional and independent manager that is chosen by the new owners and not the developer.
- At least one tree must be planted for every tree cut down with a 5 year warrantee on new plantings.
- Developer to maintain direct line of communication with the neighborhood regarding disruption.
 

Write one good letter and copy it to these people or groups:

Write a letter to Conor Newman connor.newman@boston.gov
Write a letter or cc the BPDA under zoning http://www.bostonplans.org/about-us/contact-us
Write to the Allston Civic Association: http://www.allstoncivicassociation.org/contact.html
Write to the Brighton Allston Improvement Assoc: bela@mail.com
Write to our City Councilor Liz Breadon: liz.breadon@boston.gov

All of these people / groups will likely go on record at the ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS hearing where this project will ultimately be approved or denied.

Also write to or cc the ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS: @boston.gov

If you are very passionate about this project and want to, you can also go to each of these meetings as they come up, and speak on behalf of your interests and opinions.

You can go to the ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS HEARING <--

NO DATE YET - STILL WAITING

   - When this project is called, briefly state why you support or don't support the project
       YOUR COMMENTS IN WRITING AND AT THIS MEETING
         WILL MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

- Let me know personally if you   [my phone number is 617-266-8998]
   - Want a ride to the meeting on at CITY HALL
   - Want help writing a letter or sending a letter

- There was is also an Allston Civic Association meeting June 16th online and many of these same points were brought up.

If you want to be notified about any new information that I gather, or other Royal Street stuff - contact me and I will send updates to the group.

richard@royal-street.com

Learn more about the 5-7 Hooker Street Development Project