The Harrison Albany block will include 650 new residential units
The Harrison / Albany block residential project has been modified according to an article in last week’s The Boston Sun. Developers have indicated they will reduce the number of units from 687 to 650 so they can reduce the height of some of the buildings. They will also slightly decrease the size of the parking garage from 700 to 450 spaces with the ability to increase that number to 650 spaces if stackers are used. The most drastic change is the 575 Albany Street building will now be six stories tall (not ten stories as initially proposed).
The developers have hired traffic engineers to evaluate the impact on the neighborhood. However, if there is a concern about the impact of traffic then I think the answer is to bring more reliable public transportation to the neighborhood; not restricting new developments in a downtown neighborhood where there is already a shortage of housing. These new residential buildings are literally across from I-93 and blocks from I-90, making it ideally situated. It is not the developers or neighborhoods fault the city is failing at providing adequate public transportation to alleviate surface traffic.
You can read more about this large development on the BRA website here and the real estate website Bldup has a lot of information available here.
BosGuy 