In a January 15th article for The Bulletin, reporter Matthew MacDonald updates the continuing controversy over the preservation of Crane Ledge Woods. MacDonald shares notes from a meeting of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association in early January that focused on two major development issues facing the city and the community.
What’s at stake is the future—and price tag—of Boston’s urban wild.
The article is quoted in full here:
The first concerned the recently Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) Board approved Crane Ledge Woods residential development at 990 American Legion Hwy. City Hall has cleared the project to use a privately owned 24-acre urban wild near the Hyde Park/Roslindale/Mattapan line for nine two- and three-story buildings (not including an amenity building and swimming pool) containing 204 market-rate apartments that the developer has estimated will bring in approximately $990,000 in increased tax revenue.
The application was approved by the BPDA Board last September after first being filed in 2021. During those five-plus years, it faced widespread opposition from across the city and was disapproved by the BPDA in 2023. This led to Land Court litigation in 2024. Its ruling last April limited the BPDA’s ability to impose changes on the application, which had been revised to reduce the number of units by about 25 percent (from 270) – removing all of those on the first floor and bringing the proposal into zoning compliance.
During that time, there was ongoing public and political advocacy for the City to buy the land – owned by the Jubilee Christian Church and under purchase agreement with MQMF Hyde Park LLC c/o Willow Bridge Property Company – for public use as an urban wild.
This has continued since the application’s BPDA approval, and it became a topic at Thursday’s meeting when At-Large City Councilor Henry Santana stated, in response to a question, that he would be willing to look into a budget line item for the acquisition of the parcel. “I am absolutely 100 percent in support of this,” he said of the City trying to buy the property.
This set the stage for what was to come in the next appointment: the regular monthly update from Hyde Park Liaison Zoë Petty of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services.
Tree canopy/climate advocate/activist and Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation Assistant Director Pat Alvarez immediately asked how the community could bring Mayor Michelle Wu onboard regarding the purchase of the land.
“The most important part is that the owners have to be willing to sell, and they’re no longer…” Petty had begun to respond, when HPNA President Mimi Turchinetz interjected.
“They are,” she said. “They are.”
Petty went on, now responding to Turchinetz. “They said in the meeting in the summertime that they… They said $100 million.” She was referring to a meeting held last May, at which a Jubilee representative had given that as a selling price. “Although $100 million may be hyperbole, it still shows that… it still implies that… Even half a hundred million is still $50 million.”
At that point, Hyde Park Board of Trade President/financial planner Scott Batey asked to speak, and informed Petty that one of Jubilee’s “critical decision makers” had informally told him that it is looking for the City to make a modified offer for the land. Batey also suggested that, aside from line-item funding, the City could also utilize its bond rating, work out an arrangement with the Audubon Society, or combine funding methods. In so doing, he emphasized that it be “some sort of reasonable strategy to put before Jubilee, and something serious for them to look at.”
Referring to the $100 million, he put forward that floating such an arbitrary figure is not an unusual negotiating tactic. “They’re waiting for the City to take action,” he reiterated.
“I think we’re hearing different things on the City side,” Petty offered in response, before going back to the $100 million. “But, like I said, that was the last number that was given to the City.”
Photo: Save Crane Ledge Woods