June 27, 2008

In its June 13 article “T has a plan,” the Gazette incorrectly reported the number of unique comments (excluding “format letters”) received by the Boston Redevelopment Authority in favor of a 50 percent affordability requirement for parcels slated for redevelopment around the Forest Hills T Station. The BRA received 43 unique comments explicitly favoring the 50 percent requirement. The Gazette also miscounted the number of letters the BRA received opposing the 50 percent requirement. The correct number is 16.

In its summary of the comments it received, the BRA also lists 29 individual e-mail “format letters” asking for the 50 percent requirement and that it “ensure housing is affordable to households with income between 30 and 80 percent” of the Greater Boston area median income.

The summary also notes that 34 form letters were received, and that a petition passed around to residents at Forestvale Apartments garnered 40 signatures.

Lastly, it lists another petition in favor of the 50 percent requirement that had 97 signatures. Red Burrows, who represents Forest Hills on the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, told the Gazette that petition was circulated at meetings early in the Forest Hills Improvement Initiative (FHII) process.

In the June 13 article, due to another reporting error, the Gazette also at one point mischaracterized the MBTA’s plan to charge more per square foot for land it is selling if developers decide to make fewer than 50 percent of new housing units affordable.

The Invitation To Bid actually stipulates that if developers choose to make fewer than 50 percent of those units affordable “they have to pay an additional $18.20 per square foot,” for the difference between the square footage of affordable space and the 50 percent mark, MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said.

David Taber