Nearby residents sue to try to block rural West Roxbury development, in part because it may not be as eco-friendly as the developer once claimed

Two residents of leafy Allandale Street past week sued the BPDA for its support of a contentious 16-unit townhouse improvement adjacent to Allandale Woods, accusing the bureau of violating Boston's ain requirements for approving the task and ignoring concerns by the metropolis parks section astir the imaginable interaction connected the woods.

Both the BPDA and the Zoning Board of Appeal approved an 18-unit improvement astatine 64 Allandale St. successful 2016 - 4 units successful an existing farmhouse connected the tract and sixteen caller townhouses, successful what was hailed arsenic the city's archetypal "net zero" improvement - a task that would not necessitate a nett travel of vigor from the section inferior grids. The BPDA aboriginal approved a simplification successful size to 16 units.

Earlier this year, developer, WonderGroup, LLC, asked the BPDA to o.k. different alteration - the full fig of units would stay the same, but their configuration would alteration - and the task would nary longer person to beryllium built arsenic "net zero."

In their lawsuit, filed successful Suffolk Superior Court, Allandale Street residents Jacqueline Lees and Elizabeth Bowen Donovan complaint the BPDA should ne'er person approved the "notice of task change" successful a process meant for comparatively insignificant changes, because, successful fact, the configuration would mean important changes, which would necessitate a full caller public-review process.

They pointed successful portion to elaborate comments connected the revised plans by Boston Parks and Recreation, which urged that 2 units closest to the woods either beryllium eliminated oregon moved elsewhere connected the site, due to the fact that of their imaginable nonstop interaction connected wetlands successful the woods and connected the unsocial wooded vistas for visitors to the astir 100-acre Allandale Woods, "the City’s largest and astir ecologically-significant, permanently-protected earthy area."

Parks and Recreation besides urged the BPDA to necessitate WonderGroup to enactment successful a tiny fenced successful canine parkland for residents, to support their pets from moving disconnected leash into the woods and sidesplitting immoderate tiny animals they travel crossed successful what the section considers "a captious wildlife habitat."

Lees and Donovan besides reason the task requires a implicit caller reappraisal due to the fact that the archetypal review, successful 2016, was earlier Brigham and Women's Hospital crossed the thoroughfare submitted its ain plans for a large expansion and earlier different developer began looking astatine gathering an eight-unit townhouse improvement close adjacent to 64 Allandale, astatine 90 Allandale.

And astatine a clip of deepening interest implicit clime change, WonderGroup's petition to regenerate the "net-zero" request with a committedness to conscionable each applicable metropolis codes - which bash not necessitate nary caller vigor usage from caller developments - besides warrants a caller review, they say.

Lees and Donovan were among the residents who sued implicit the archetypal 2016 cases successful a suit that was dismissed by a justice successful Suffolk Superior Court. They were successful the process of filing an entreaty of that ruling erstwhile WonderGroup submitted its plans for a smaller, but inactive energy-neutral task and they agreed to retreat their appeal.

Complete complaint (1.25M PDF).
Boston Parks and Recreation concerns (951k PDF).
WonderGroup petition for task change (23.8M PDF, includes renderings).
BPDA committee support of the revised plan (1.2M PDF).