Hancock Village Development

As most of you are aware, Chestnut Hill Realty would like to expand Hancock Village. The developer would like to build about 400-500 new units and would like Town Meeting to approve a zoning change. For more complete and updated information go to http://www.preservebrookline.com.

Under the current zoning laws, Hancock Village (the Brookline portion) is divided into two zones.  One is zoned S-7, which means that only single-family homes can be developed on that site. These areas are the green buffer zones that border Russett and Beverly Roads. The rest of the Brookline portion of Hancock Village is zoned M-.5. This means that multi-family housing can be built in these areas.  However, there are restrictions concerning how many units can be built, how much parking is required, how tall the buildings can be (35 feet), the percent of the area that must be provided for landscaped open space (30%), and other factors. The current proposal is not consistent with these zoning restrictions. In addition, even more restrictive limitations on development were established in the 1946 agreement that created Hancock Village. Whether these additional restrictions are currently enforceable is uncertain at the moment.

Ed Zuker, the owner of Chestnut Hill Realty, requested that a Town committee be created to explore development of Hancock Village. The committee members consist of Town officials, Town Meeting Members, and neighborhood representatives. The full list can be found on the Town website. The committee was convened and met several times. As of the last meeting at the beginning of the summer, several members of the committee expressed disappointment in the failure of Chestnut Hill Realty to make substantive changes to its proposal in response to input from the Committee and the neighborhood. No further Committee meetings have been scheduled.

Currently, both sides are conducting a financial impact study.

For further information, see a website created by concerned neighbors: http://www.preservebrookline.com.

To subscribe to the joint SBNA-PreserveBrookline email list, send an email to: sbnapreservebrookline-join@sbna.org.

To contact us for additional information or find out additional ways you could help, email preservebrookline@sbna.org.