Bournewood Expansion Plans Sneak Through

In case you haven't yet heard the unsettling news, the Brookline Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) recently gave the green light to the owners of Bournewood Hospital, a private, for-profit psychiatric treatment facility, to construct a brand new building on its property at 300 South Street. This comes as a great surprise to many of us in the neighborhood, since the Brookline Planning Board dutifully rejected Bournewood's application for a special permit to override the Town zoning law. Indeed, earlier signs at previous hearings suggested that Town officials would at least preserve the tenuous status quo vis-a-vis Bournewood Hospital and support our neighborhood's fierce opposition to any expansion at Bournewood.

Regrettably, few neighbors appeared at the hearing on June 18th when the fateful decision of the ZBA was cast, perhaps due to the unfortunate timing of another battle to preserve the integrity of our community being fought simultaneously on another front (i.e., Hancock Village development). Consequently, the ZBA -- the Town's ultimate authority on the interpretation of Brookline zoning by-laws -- was won over by the promises of Bournewood's owner and attorney not to expand and the Planning Board's recommendation was overturned.

The history of Bournewood Hospital’s presence in our neighborhood has been very long, but never harmonious. The Town records clearly show that the problems with Bournewood have existed for many years. Complaints regarding the lack of security, additional traffic, noise and patient escapes abound and have been addressed, only partially, when the hospital needed something from the Town.

In order to preserve our neighborhood, we must demand that if Bournewood wants to expand, it must move elsewhere. If it wants to stay, it should not be allowed to add a new building. Bournewood's owners contend that they're not expanding; however, some evidence proves otherwise:

Consider that in 1974, their outpatient base was around five patients during weekdays and up to ten patients on Saturdays. According to the ZBA decision, Bournewood will be allowed to treat up to 50 (!) outpatients [See link to Supporting Documents]. And if this isn't enough, the owners are permitted to petition the ZBA again to ask for an additional allowance. There is little doubt they'll get it -- and at our expense!

Ominously, the business owners and profiteers of Bournewood Hospital have effectually removed their last obstacle to expanding their business and it will be at the expense of the property values of our homes and the safety of our children and neighborhood. In fact, the Brookline Police Department is also bound to lose: they've been forced to dedicate large amounts of valuable police time to responding to calls at Bournewood. [See link to Supporting Documents]

We urgently appeal to you to send emails and letters now to the Town Zoning Board of Appeals members urging them to re-open the hearings concerning Bournewood Hospital. Time is running out to act! The members of the ZBA may be reached at the email address of the Town Clerk: Pat_Ward@town.brookline.ma.us.  A sample email is provided below (please sign your own letter with your name, address and email):

Dear Members of the ZBA:

As a resident of Brookline living near Bournewood Hospital, I am writing to urge you to re-open the hearings on the proposed addition of a new building at Bournewood Hospital. Our neighborhood has had difficulties with the hospital over many years, the most important being the imminent threat to our safety and quality of life. We fear that allowing the addition of the building paves the way for Bournewood to expand its outpatient and even inpatient populations. Because we experience safety issues at present, we can only imagine how much worse it would be if they expand. Please do not allow construction of the new building, and please do not construe the lack of presence of neighbors at a session when the case was considered closed to indicate that neighbors don’t care.

We do, greatly.

Signed,

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