ZBA Approves Addition at 95-97 Broadway in Bay Village

On January 11, the Zoning Board of Appeal (ZBA) approved a proposal at 95-97 Broadway in Bay Village to add a partial second and a third floor addition for two residential units to the existing office space on the ground floor, which will remain.

The project is in the Groundwater Conservation Overlay District (GCOD), which requires zoning relief. Christian Simonelli from the Boston Groundwater Trust said that the office has received the approval letter from the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, as well as the no harm letter from an engineer. The ZBA confirmed receipt of these letters as well.

Attorney Mike Ross spoke about the other violations for the project, saying that “this is an existing office use,” and “our plan is to add two residential units to floors two and three of the existing building.” The Floor Area Ratio will increase from 1.9 to 2.7 as a result of the addition, which consists of about 4800 square feet of additional space to the existing building. There is also a rear yard violation, but the proposal does not include any addition to the rear yard.

Ross explained that both units are two bedrooms, but Unit 2 is smaller and will be located on the second floor. It will be about 2,005 square feet, while Unit 1—on the third floor—will be the “entire third floor” at 3,900 square feet, and will also have exclusive access to a roof deck, which also requires a conditional use permit.

The roof deck is about 580 square feet, he said, and will be accessed via a stair to a hatch.

He said that the building owner wanted to have a hatch “to remove any kind of head house obstructions” and avoid impacting neighbors with that kind of structure.

Kim Crucioli from the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services said that the applicant conducted a “completely thorough community process,” and there is “no opposition from abutters,” nor from from the Bay Village Neighborhood Association.

City Councilors Ed Flynn and Michael Flaherty were in support of the project, as was an abutter on Melrose St. who said that the process was “thorough” and the proponent met several times with neighbors. “We do not oppose the project and are in support of what she’s doing,” she said of the proponent.

After all comments were made, the ZBA voted to approve the project.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.