Town Extends Permits for Children's Development in Brookline Village

In what some officials called a "housekeeping" vote, Brookline planning officials have given Children's Hospital an extra year to start construction on an eight-story medical office building in the heart of Brookline Village.

The Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously on June 24 to extend a collection of special permits in order to give a developer affiliated with Children's Hospital an extra year to apply for a building permit for the project, tentatively called Children's Brookline Place.

The extension also brings all of the project's permits in line to expire at the same time in June 2011. Prior to this extension, some of the project's special permits would expire after only one year from the date they were issued, instead of the two-year period granted with most permits.

"I view this an administrative," said board Vice Chairman Jesse Geller, adding that he "cannot imagine that" the initial permits were intended to be staggered.

"This is a very complex, large process and project and we do need the full two year period," said Marilyn Sticklor, an attorney representing the developers. Sticklor said that the Children's Hospital affiliate developing the site is in discussions with potential tenants and is looking at financing options before it can begin construction. Sticklor said she hopes the developer will apply for a building permit by the end of the year, but said the groundbreaking date would depend on financing and tenant placement.

Plans call for the construction of an eight-story building adjacent to the New England Art Institute and Brookline Village Station on Brookline Place. The mixed-use facility would house ground-level retail spaces and five levels of parking.

Speaking on behalf of the Planning Department, town planner Courtney Synowiec testified that the department found that the current economic climate gives reasonable cause for extending the permits.

Arlene Mattison, president of the Brookline GreenSpace Alliance, spoke in opposition to the permit extension, asking that the board take the opportunity presented by the hearing to give another look at the project as a whole and its impact on the town. Transit and environmental advocates have criticized the project as including to much parking and inviting more traffic onto Route 9, and successfully pushed new zoning for the site through Town Meeting in 2008 to limit the parking that could be built on the site.

Mattison cited the potential for increased traffic congestion and environmental impact as reasons to reexamine Children's plans. Mattison said that at previous meetings, projections for traffic congestion were determined to be "unmeasurable."

"I know that, personally, it was very dissatisfying for me to have the experts from the developer give reasoning such that they were using as a defense the fact that they could not measure the degree of congestion that their project was going to cause," Mattison told the board.