PARCEL 24 PROJECT

June 15, 2007 by Chinatown Blogger.

Yesterday I was at a public hearing for the City’s Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) for Parcel 24. The meeting was to request DND to release money from linkage funds to help build more affordable housing on the site.

For those unfamiliar, Parcel 24 is 1.5-acre of land that is east of Chinatown and borders Hudson Street and I-93 highway. There is a proposal by the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) to develop mixed-income housing on the site.

Jeremy Liu, director of ACDC, gave an overview of the site and its historical significance to Chinatown. When the highway was built in 1962, the people in the area were displaced and the fabric of the community was torn. One of those people displaced was Caroline Chang, who once lived on 48 Hudson Street.

Caroline spoke to the DND board members about how she was born in the ‘40s in 48 Hudson Street. Back in those days she recounted, “Doctors came to your house to deliver babies.” Before the construction of the Central Artery, Hudson Street was a vibrant and diverse community of immigrant Chinese, Syrians, and Italians. “It was a shocked to our family when one day we were told we had to move, “ said Chang. By building Parcel 24, Chinatown will get an opportunity to recover a piece of that history and also allow residents who were displaced to come back to the same street where they once lived.

In addition to the pictures of the project, Jeremy showed the breakdown of housing for the site. Here is a quick summary of the data. (The slides were more extensive than what I am posting here.)

Affordable Rental - 70 units
Affordable Condo – 66 to*99 units
Market-rate Condo – 156 to *189 units

It was explained to DND why there was a 66 to 99 and 156 to 189. Based on current funding, ACDC will be able to develop at MINIMUM 66 affordable condos. Combined with the 70 affordable rental units, this will represent 47% total affordability for the project. However, if DND is able to grant an additional $632,000 from linkage money through the construction of the W Boston Hotel (on Stuart Street near Chinatown), Parcel 24 project will be able to create an additional 33 affordable condos. Jeremy pointed out that homeownership is important in Chinatown because less than 10% of Chinatown is owner-occupied.

The DND chairperson (I missed his name) said he liked the Parcel 24 concept. However, he had reservations and wanted more data. He said that based on the amount requested, the DND felt that ACDC should be building even more affordable units than the additional 33. The meeting ended with a staff from City Councilor Sam Yoon’s office who spoke to give support to the project.

Since there has been no public meeting to update the Chinatown community on Parcel 24 recently, Jeremy asked me mention on this blog that ACDC will be hosting public meetings.

CORRECTION 7/18/07: Jeremy Liu of Asian CDC wrote that the project will actually need an additional $14 million (not $632,000) to build the additional affordable units. The $635K is only a fraction of the cost needed. Katharine O’Roof of Asian CDC clarified at another community meeting that there are two sums of money from the W Boston Hotel: linkage and inclusionary zoning. The $632K is from linkage funds, which has been approved since the original post on 6/15. Asian CDC is meeting with the Board of the Boston Redevelopment Authority on 7/19 to request an additional $1.8 million of inclusionary zoning funds for Parcel 24. If anyone has any additional info or feedback I appreciate it if you put it in the comments section.

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