Boston ZBA Approves East Boston Billboard, Dorchester Affordable Housing in Wide-Ranging Session

BOSTON -- November 19, 2024, Boston's Zoning Board of Appeal approved a contested digital billboard on Madonna Hill in East Boston and six permanently affordable homeownership units in Dorchester among more than a dozen actions taken at its November 19 remote hearing. The board voted 6-1 to approve a two-sided digital monopole billboard at 423 William F. McClellan Highway sought by Maverick Media on land owned by the Sons of Divine Providence, reversing an earlier 4-3 denial, with provisos requiring light-blocking technology, removal of two existing rusted static signs, and a 30-year landscaping contract. Attorney James Costello told the board the project had secured roughly 500 letters of support and endorsements from State Senator Lydia Edwards, City Councilor Erin Murphy, and the Orient Heights Neighborhood Council; one neighbor, Gail Miller of 232 Orient Ave., testified in opposition citing the site's conservation sub-district designation. The board unanimously approved six permanently affordable units at 355 Park Street for Boston Neighborhood Community Land Trust under the city's Welcome Home Boston ARPA-funded program, though several abutters said they had never been contacted about the project. The board also approved Groundwater Conservation Overlay District permits for all nine addresses of the Casas Podequin scattered-site affordable housing rehabilitation in the South End while denying without prejudice additional relief for a first-floor unit at 403-405 Shawmut Avenue that the Planning Department said sat below the base flood elevation.