Boston ZBA Approves Roxbury Birth Center Over Neighbor Opposition

BOSTON -- December 16, 2025, Boston's Zoning Board of Appeal approved a contested Roxbury birth center and cleared more than 20 development cases in a daylong virtual hearing on December 16. The board voted 7-0 to grant a use variance for the Neighborhood Birth Center at 14 Winthrop Street, a 6,800-square-foot midwife-staffed facility on three residential parcels, with a proviso tying the clinical use to the current applicant, directly addressing opponents' concerns that approval would open the door to broader commercial encroachment in the residential neighborhood. The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services reported 215 individual letters of support and a 218-signature petition in favor, against 93 letters of opposition, including formal opposition from the Roxbury Path Forward Neighborhood Association and the Roxbury Neighborhood Council, which cited emergency access risks on the one-way, single-lane street. The board also approved a 29-unit, two-building development at 29-33 Ramsey Street in Dorchester, more than 40 percent affordable, with 12 income-restricted units, over opposition from direct abutters and the Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association, which called the project "too large and too big an ask" for the narrow one-way street. Other approvals included a 78-unit, 100 percent affordable senior housing building at 1198 Center Street in Roslindale and a 92-unit office-to-residential conversion at 85-99 Berkeley Street in the South End.