Mattapan residents met last week to approve the latest plans for the $57 million redevelopment of Mattapan Station, one of the final chances to weigh in before developers seek state funding for the proposed mixed-use residential project.
Meeting with about 40 residents, union workers and city officials, last Wednesday night at the Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library, the development team revealed the latest project plans and invited another round of feedback from residents.
“It’s setting a higher standard for the type of construction you’re going to see in Mattapan,” said Charlie Dirac, the project manager overseeing the redevelopment, from Preservation of Affordable Housing.
Since the Boston Planning and Development Agency approved the original plans on Feb. 8, David Saladik from MASS Design Group has been working alongside David Price from Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation and Preservation of Affordable Housing, to create the latest designs.
Once detailed plans are approved by the Zoning Board of Appeal, who will vote at the end of this month, the development team can submit funding applications and apply for vital state subsidies at the end of October.
The meeting was an opportunity for community members to get a first glimpse of the detailed designs and to express concerns, which mainly fell into two categories, job creation and the affordability of the 135 mixed-income rental units the project has promised.
When faced with questions about job creation, developers said it was too soon to give specific figures. The number of permanent jobs created by the project will depend on what retail units residents decide they would like the building to house, said Price.
As well as apartments, a 2,000-square foot community space and open areas connecting residents to the Neponset River Greenway, the project will offer 10,000 square feet of retail space along River Street.
Attendees were asked to complete a feedback survey. Questions included “What price range do you consider reasonable for a dinner plate at a sit down restaurant?” and “How often do you buy coffee?”
A resident asked if Mattapan locals might receive preferential treatment in any hiring process. Aside from the city’s current hiring targets, which stipulate that 51 percent of jobs must go to Boston residents, 40 percent to minorities and 12 percent to women, neighborhood-specific hiring goals do not exist, although Price said there would be a jobs trailer on-site and an easy sign-up system that might make applying for work more accessible for locals.
“We’re going to make sure that everyone is being held accountable on this project and in this city,” said Charles Cofield, Mattapan resident and business representative for Local 327 of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters.
Cofield and other union workers pressed the development team on committing to thorough vetting and the hiring of responsible contractors. Some attendees supported the inclusion of a clause in the bidding documents that would enforce this.
“Our other goal,” said Cofield, “is to make sure we get something in the language on this job, to make sure…people are being paid correctly, there’s no misclassification, there’s no wage theft [or] payroll fraud.” He offered to give a list of offending contractors to Preservation of Affordable Housing and Nuestra Comunidad.
A large number of questions were posed about the affordability of the redeveloped units. At least half will be designated affordable, while the rest will be rented to households earning 60 percent or less of the Area Median Income.
According to most recent figures available from the Boston Planning and Development Agency, median household income in Mattapan was $43,256 in 2015, while the citywide median was $55,777.
Residents quizzed the development team on their definition of “workforce affordable,” wanting greater clarification on the rental price range of these apartments.
The developers said they are sensitive to the community’s need for reasonably priced housing and will work to make sure pricing structures are “economically sustainable.”
But this proved ineffective reassurance, as residents continued to voice concerns over potential rent hikes in Mattapan once the project is completed.
As one community member said, “we need to keep everything affordable, so that owners of these buildings in the area don’t get this fever and think that they’re just going to start raising rents.”
The redevelopment of this 2.75-acre former MBTA parking lot is part of a wider neighborhood planning program already in action in Mattapan, spurred on by Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s “Imagine Boston 2030” initiative. The mayor’s plan aims to preserve the city’s history, while ensuring equitable and inclusive growth over the next 12 years.
“We have a lot of moving parts in Mattapan,” said Tina Petigny, executive director of Mattapan Square Main Streets. During the meeting, she assured residents that the mayor’s office and the Main Streets Foundation would be monitoring the project and ensuring it complied with city regulations.
Petigny said the city is working slowly to support development in Mattapan, a pace that failed to match developer Joseph Taylor’s ambitions for a residential building at 422 River St.
After investing $4 million dollars in the wood frame building back in 2016, Taylor was forced to turn all 27 units into apartments. His original plan to sell the majority of them as market-rate condos could not be realized due to financial difficulties and market uncertainty.
Meanwhile, Caribbean Integration Community Development is working on 872 Morton Street, a 38-unit mixed-income development that will include commercial space and a new memorial garden in honor of Stephen P. Odom, a 13-year old boy who was shot and killed in 2007, walking home from a pickup basketball game in Dorchester.
Caribbean Integration Community Development is also involved in the redevelopment of the old Cote Ford dealership on Cummins Highway, which will add 76 units, a community room, commercial space, a public plaza and 84 parking spaces.
But redevelopment brings risk, and residents remain unconvinced that valuable lessons in community engagement and equity of economic opportunity, learned from similar past projects, may not be heeded.
As one attendee explained, residents in those areas are “scarred” by recent redevelopment in other parts of the city, like Roxbury and Dorchester, where long-term residents have been displaced, and local businesses unable to contribute in the project.
“We’ve seen the good and the bad,” said a community member at the meeting. “What you’re hearing is that people want to make sure this isn’t another one that gets away, that people feel good about it from the first shovel in the ground.”
