Big Agenda for Charlestown at August BPDA Board Meeting

Thursday’s BPDA Board meeting features a big agenda for Charlestown, with at least five items of interest on the slate to be considered.

In addition to the Little Mystic lease extension, four other items will also be taken up, including:

•After a heavily-attended meeting in March on the ambulance facility within a development on Main Street, the BPDA is looking to put out an RFP for the disposition of the land which would house a new development, including a new ambulance bay substation. The land is owned by the BPDA, and currently a hut is located there for the ambulance company. A developer from East Boston has presented plans for the last few years that would include the ambulance on the BPDA land within his development. That process seems to be ready to start now, and the RFP is expected to outline a robust community process for the ambulance and residential development project. The RFP would call for “the disposition of Parcel C-2A-5 to redevelop the property while also facilitating the delivery of the ‘core and shell’ of a building to be used by the Boston Health Commission as an emergency medical services substation dedicated to Charlestown.”

Bids are likely to be opened in the fall.

•The BPDA is looking to enter into a license agreement with the Navy Yard Garden Association to bring another public art show to the Yard in the summer of 2020. The Association brought in the popular Big Dog show last summer, which generated a lot of positive energy from resident of the Yard and the entire neighborhood. This time, the Association hopes to bring in the Whitaker Wind Sculpture exhibit from Kansas City. The Arts Commission has already given conditional approval for the installation. The exhibit would run from May 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2020.

•Courageous Sailing is looking to get the terms of their lease on Pier 4 extended for one year. The BPDA land for Courageous is used to operate the youth sailing program. The original five-year lease ran from 2011 to 2016, and the BPDA has granted one-year extensions two times since the lease expired. It is expected a third extension will be granted.

•A building project on Tremont Street is seeking a minor modification to the Urban Renewal Plan and also to enter into a new Land Disposition Agreement that would allow a single-family home owned by the Golden family to be torn down so that three new townhouses could be built on a “pork chop” lot at the corner of Tremont and Lowney Way. The project had a community process and has support of Councilor Lydia Edwards and Mayor Martin Walsh’s office. It was approved at the Zoning Board earlier this year.

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