Planning Board Rejects Development Plan for Troubled Red Cab Site

The Planning Board voted unanimously June 24 to reject a developer's preliminary proposal to turn the Boylston Street site of the former Red Cab garage into a sub-division with a cul-de-sac and two building lots, saying the proposal was riddled with problems.

"It might meet (basic standards) but as far as I'm concerned it doesn't meet the standard of common sense," Board Chair Mark Zarrillo said, who cited the lack of traffic visibility along the access way, the height of retaining walls on the property and other reasons for his vote against the plan.

Despite the vote, the filing of the subdivision plan means zoning for the site was frozen in May before Town Meeting voted to  limit the size of new construction on the site. Future projects would still be subject to the original zoning, which allowed for a much larger building.

"We're here because a state statue says that they can submit a preliminary plan, it can be a sketch on a piece of paper if they want it to be, and that this board has to either approve or not approve as submitted, or approve it with conditions," said Town Planner Polly Selkoe when asked by a resident why the meeting was taking place.

Development plans for 111 Boylston have lain dormant for almost two years. The previous developer for the site, Leggate-McCall Properties, secured initial approval for the construction of a four-story medical office building in 2008, but the project languished amid the recession and was eventually abandoned.

The original project faced strong opposition from neighbors on adjacent White Place whose homes would have fallen in the shadow of the new building for much of the winter. The zoning change approved at Town Meeting would have limited the height of future development on the site and eased the impact on nearby residents.

Neighbors at Thursday's meeting questioned the developers' motives in submitting the subdivision plan, calling it a "legal ploy" aimed at getting around the zoning changes overwhelmingly supported by Town Meeting.

Calling the developer's filing a "legal strategy," resident Hugh Mattison compared the move to a similar legal manuever used for Children's Hospital's development at Brookline Place.

"This is exactly the same scenario that was pulled at Brookline Place," Mattison said, "Children's Hospital filed a subdivision plan before Town Meeting and that froze it."

The preliminary plan calls for the sub-division of the parcel at 111 Boylston St. into two lots, with a circular cul-de-sac driveway providing access to the proposed buildings. Representatives from Stantec, the firm representing the project's developers, said the town could accept the cul-de-sac as a public way or allow it to remain private. A portion of the land abuts the MBTA's D Line, but would be isolated to the far side of the circle, according to plans presented at the meeting.

According to Frank Holmes from Stantec, the buyer of the southern lot would be able to chose whether the buildings would face the new cul-de-sac or out onto Boylston Street.