Community Economic Power

DUDLEY NEIGHBORS, INCORPORATED

Dudley Neighbors, Incorporated (DNI) was created by the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) to play a critical role in the housing development portion of DSNI’s comprehensive master plan that was drafted by residents to guide the revitalization of the neighborhood.

In the fall of 1988, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) approved DNI’s request to become a Massachusetts 121A Corporation. That status allowed DNI to accept the power of eminent domain to acquire privately-owned vacant land in the area designated as the Dudley Triangle. DNI combines vacant lots acquired via eminent domain with City-owned parcels and leases these to private and nonprofit developers for the purpose of building affordable housing consistent with the community’s master plan.

DNI is structured as a Community Land Trust (CLT), and as such plays a crucial role in preserving affordable housing and providing residents with a way to control the development process in the neighborhood. DNI leases land initially to developers during construction, and subsequently to individual homeowners, cooperative housing corporations and other forms of limited partnerships.

Through its 99-year ground lease, DNI can require that its properties be used for purposes set forth by the community. It can also establish parameters on the price that homes sell for and can be resold for.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

Sustainable Development Committee is responsible for reviewing housing, open space, economic development and environmental projects proposed for the area.

Subcommittees include: Urban Agriculture, Solid Waste Task Force and Economic Development.

This committee walks out the Development Processes based on a resident-developed comprehensive plan created in 1987 (called the DAC plan), the Dudley Triangle Build-Out was divided into four phases for planning purposes and set the criteria for all development in the Triangle.

Criteria included:

• off-street parking
• mostly large units (3 bedroom)
• yards
• no construction higher than the existing houses nearby
• architecture consistent with existing housing

DUDLEY STREET BUILD OUT

Dudley Street Build Out - DSNI has focused its planning work on four clusters of disinvested, vacant land, where commercial or mixed residential/commercial uses are appropriate:

1. The Upham’s/Dudley Community Center Site, where close to 142,000 sq. ft. are in close proximity to a planned new building (opening in 2008) and the MBTA Fairmount Line commuter rail station

2. The St. Patrick’s Site, 56,000 sq.ft. where St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged once stood

3. The Greenhouse Site, where 19,852 sq.ft. are adjacent to the land where DSNI has built a new community commercial greenhouse; and

4. The Dudley/East Cottage Site, a key commercial location where 54,910 sq.ft. of City-owned land are being linked with 11,700 sq.ft. of privately owned land to build some four-story apartment buildings and a four-story commercial building. In each case an “anchor” development is already moving forward, and this informs the complementary uses of surrounding vacant land. Despite the current soft economy, we designated, in 2004, nearly all of this land to active development projects. The design of these developments is being driven by our inclusive, resident controlled process, in collaboration with the City of Boston and the developers, so that what is constructed will fit with the economic needs of our neighborhood population – for jobs, for improved access to consumer goods, and for quality of life.