Note: Send your comments to the MEPA analyst, Bill Gage, and send copies to the BRA Planner, Rebecca Barnes and Director Mark Maloney to protest BRA approvals of projects that haven't gotten State approval.
The deadline for MEPA public review is June 6, 2003,
official address for comments as follows:
Sec. Ellen Roy Herzfelder
Attn: MEPA Office
EOEA 251 Causeway St., suite 900
Boston, MA. 02114
EOEA # 12636, Attn: William Gage
bill.gage at state dot ma dot us
The Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) was filed April 30; copies are available by contacting Imge Ceranoglu at (781) 849-7070 x271.
81 Lawn Street
Roxbury, MA. 02120
April 3,2003
Jim Gribaudo, Project Manager
BRA
Boston City Hall
Boston, Ma. 02201
Re: Joslin Diabetes Center Expansion
Dear Mr. Gribaudo:
I am very concerned that the state environmental review process has apparently been ignored in the BRAís haste to approve the Joslin Diabetes Center Expansion. The Secretary of Environmental Affairs issued a Certificate in Nov.2002 on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that required a Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) to be submitted. The Project proponents were requested to respond to the public comments submitted for the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) review and to resolve the remaining issues- "traffic, parking, transit, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, drainage, historic resources/ open space and mitigation." The proponents (Joslin Diabetes Center and the Keefe Co.) have not submitted the required analyses although they agreed last year to a "coordinated Project review by the MEPA office and the BRA" (page 2-10, DPIR).
Without completing the MEPA review process the project cannot receive any required state or federal permits. The BRA has scheduled a public hearing for Thursday April 10 regarding the Joslin Diabetes Center Institutional Master Plan. "The development program section of the Master Plan is virtually the same as the Proposed Project that was the subject of the joint DPIR/ DEIR" to quote from the BRAís own request for supplemental information (2/18/03). In other words, in approving the Master Plan the BRA Board will be approving the proposed project.
Serious questions remain to be answered, yet the public process has been circumvented. These questions include the impact of the residential towerís height on the Medflight helicopter routes, the affordable housing and displacement concerns with the loss of the 84 unit apartment building and the impact on pedestrians of both a widened Longwood Avenue and the major increase in daylight obstruction along the public sidewalks. The predicted shadows on spring afternoons falling across the Shapiro Center plaza and across the façade of the National Register listed former Massachusetts College of Art at 364 Brookline Avenue will obviously affect the use of the plaza space provided for the public as a benefit when Beth Israel Hospital obtained the building from the state.
The BRAís February 2003 Interim Guidelines for the LMA were intended to "limit the expansion of facilities to accommodate only that expansion which has been demonstrated to meet an essential need for the five year period going forward." It is not clear that the lab space that the Joslin is proposing to rent to other institutions (more than 80,000 sq ft out of the total 177,000) will in fact be utilized by the Joslin within the next five years.
With every new development the LMA institutions resolutely move towards a public realm that even the proponents admit will resemble the financial district; citizens can mourn what will be lost but apparently the City has acceded. The oldest building in the LMA, the two 1/2 story former brick fire station built in 1873 at Brookline Avenue and Longwood is to be replaced by a 305í(not including the penthouse for mechanicals) tower, a 28 car parking lot will make way for nine stories of research, and 350 underground parking spaces and the Longwood Gardens Apartments built in 1926 will be a sentimental memory.
If the BRA Board approves these plans and ignores the requirement for further environmental review, the proponents can proceed with demolition applications. Responding to public comments submitted in October 2002 will seem unnecessary; once the parcels are cleared, the project will inevitably be fast-forwarded.
Sincerely,
Alison Pultinas
Cc: City Councilor Michael Ross
James Hunt, MEPA Director
Rebecca Barnes, BRA Director of Planning
Ann Lattinville, MHC
FRIENDS OF HISTORIC MISSION HILL
81 Lawn Street, Roxbury, Ma. 02120
October 30,2002
Bob Durand, Secretary
EOEA
Attention: MEPA Office
William Gage, EOEA #12636
251 Causeway St., Suite 900
Boston, MA. 02114
Dear Secretary Durand,
The following comments on the Joslin Diabetes Center expansion project are submitted from the Friends of Historic Mission Hill, a residentñbased group actively concerned with issues affecting the preservation of our neighborhoodís historic buildings, streetscapes, and the quality of life experienced by the residents of our urban neighborhood. Although Bostonís zoning code has separated the Longwood Medical Area from the Mission Hill District- historically these Roxbury streets were part of the same community. Certainly the institutions and their expansion projects affect Mission Hill - the environmental impacts especially cannot be contained or controlled.
The current development proposal has the high-rise tower located on the corner of Brookline Avenue and Longwood Avenue, a change from the original submittal. The existing corner structure (411 Brookline, 354 Longwood) now referred to as the Ullian building (the family name of the long time owner) was the original Boston Fire Dept.Engine 37 station. The 1873 construction date is acknowledged with a plaque on the Longwood Avenue side of the building. Historic brick firehouses can typically be found in many Massachusetts communities and their adaptive re-use is also very common. However by virtue of its location this former 19th century station is a welcomed anomaly amidst the glass and concrete canyons that now dominate the Longwood Medical Area. The building has mixed uses; small retail shops on the 1st floor and 2nd floor offices and previously was also an American Legion Hall, the Oliver Ames J. Post # 117 for more than 30 years. The Ullian buildingís retail shops are an attractive contrast to the 1st floor retail in Joslinsí own campus where the extensive setback from Brookline Avenue and the overhanging third floor addition manage to keep the retail entrances hidden and in shadow for most of the day. The intersection of Brookline Avenue and Longwood Avenue is wonderfully busy with pedestrians presumably an ideal condition for successful retail. The Boston Transportation Department has also successfully managed the traffic signals to maintain a priority pedestrian cycle enabling walkers to cross in multiple directions.
As now proposed the expansion plans of the Joslin Diabetes Center will demolish both Longwood Gardens, the 1928 brick apartment building with a landscaped courtyard open to the street and the Ullian building, which is undoubtedly the oldest structure in the Longwood Medical Area. The smaller scale brick buildings contribute character in an area that is increasingly "characterless." The demolitions pose a particular loss for pedestrians whose experience of the public realm on Longwood Avenue continues to be desecrated. Beginning with the loss of a 1-acre public park (Berners Square at Plymouth, Pilgrim and Longwood), the 1950ís "highway improvements" that turned Olmstedís parkways into speedways, the construction of massive freestanding garages in close proximity to the Riverway and continuing with the road widenings in the 1980ís; the assault on the public will be a siege when the shadows from Joslinís tower reach towards Brookline and across the Winsor School playing fields and the traffic from the garages fills Pilgrim Road. The schoolís playing fields are hidden behind solid wood fencing over 6 feet tall; the green space is private but also visually inaccessible, tantalizing the pedestrian.
The development plans include additional research space for the institution and speculative space that will be leased. Other LMA institutions are also working with real estate developers to build speculative research space however the market might easily become saturated and the construction redundant. Additional parking facilities at this location logically will increase the traffic congestion on adjacent streets including the Riverway. There is a serious danger of over-development that will lead to gridlock and exacerbate the conditions that already are creating an unpleasant quality of life for the immediate residential neighbors including the Longwood Gardens Apartments at 368-370-372 Longwood Avenue. These conditions include the nearby helicopter pad on the Beth Israel-Deaconess campus providing lifesaving medical flights however simultaneously creating a noise and vibration level seemingly incompatible with residential development.
A final comment- the Joslin Diabetes Center is located in the Urban Ring corridor, yet the expansion project filings fail to relate the plans to proposed stations or route.
In summary, the Friends of Historic Mission Hill have very serious concerns with the Joslin Diabetes Centerís expansion plans and request a thorough environmental review that will seek alternatives to the massive scale of the currently proposed development
Sincerely,
Alison Pultinas
Friends of Historic Mission Hill
Cc: City Councilor Michael Ross
Owen Donnelly /BRA
Joan Goody/ Boston Civic Design Commission
Ellen Lipsey/ Boston Landmarks Commission
Michael Latka/Daylor Consulting