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.