Boston ZBA Approves Verizon Cell Site, 48-Unit Roxbury Building at October Hearing

BOSTON — October 8, 2024 — Boston's Zoning Board of Appeal approved more than a dozen development cases at its October 8 virtual hearing, including a disputed Verizon wireless antenna at 319-327 Chelsea Street in East Boston and a six-story, 48-unit mixed-use building at 751-757 Dudley Street in Roxbury's Upham's Corner. The East Boston Maverick Central Neighborhood Association had formally opposed the Verizon installation, and resident Debbie Raso questioned why East Boston needed a fifth Verizon cell site, but the board approved the antenna unanimously with conditions requiring screened rooftop equipment and color-matched facade antennas. The Dudley Street project, brought by the Salzberg family and their attorney Joseph Feaster of Dane Torpy, will include six affordable units — the minimum under the IDP rounding rules at 48 units — plus a fund contribution, a detail that drew pushback from member Langham and a neighboring resident who called for more. The board voted unanimously to deny without prejudice a five-unit townhouse proposal at 226 Magnolia Street in Roxbury after the Boston Planning Department said it lacked ISD-stamped plans for the revised scheme and multiple neighborhood groups testified the community process had been bypassed when the developer quietly reduced the project from six units to five. In a reconsideration hearing, the board unanimously agreed to re-hear a previously denied three-family project at 548 East Street in South Boston after attorney Mike Ross argued his client lost the March vote by a single vote on a six-member board without being warned the seventh seat was vacant.