New affordable apartments for seniors approved for regeneration site
MELBOURNE: A new affordable apartments for seniors project has been approved by planners for a regeneration site.
The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by Rogerson Communities to build a six-story, 41-unit apartment for senior citizens on Beaufort Road, behind its existing Rogerson House memory and senior day center on the Jamaicaway in Jamaica Plain.
All of the units will have one bedroom and all will be rented as affordable: Roughly half the units to people making no more than 60% of the Boston-area median income, nine will be rented to people making no more than 50% of that level and eleven to people making no more than 30% of it.
The building will also house 61 beds for memory-care patients who will be moved from the existing Rogerson House – the large and increasingly antiquated building visible across a large lawn along the Jamaicaway. Rogerson eventually plans to extend Rogerson House with a new wing between it and the new apartment building, but that remains in the planning stages, Rogerson representatives told the board today.
The new building will have a 35-space garage for employees, accessible via an entrance on Beaufort Road. There will be no spaces in the garage for residents.
Rogerson had initially proposed a seven-story, 71-unit senior apartment building in 2024, but reduced the height and number of units in response to neighbor criticism.
But even the smaller building is still too large for some neighbors. Sally Zimmerman of Beaufort Road noted the building approved by the board was only phase 1 of a 2-phase project and called for “a modest further reduction in height” and more parking to keep it “in harmony” with the surrounding residential area.
The board approved the project unanimously. Board member Giovanny Valencia, a Jamaica Plain resident and longtime housing advocate, praised the addition of affordable housing in a building with a design he said was designed to fit in with the surrounding area – including the seven-story Forbes building on Centre Street.
The Boston Planning Department board approved the project in January.
Rogerson-Beaufort filings.