To the Editor:

Last Wednesday, our zoning board granted a host of variances. The first waived the zoning code’s minimum lot size on a street that has been transformed by tear-downs. A sheepish chair explained that the board had no choice: 68 percent of the lots on that particular block are similarly undersized and the master plan has not yet been amended to reflect current reality.

The second approval simply ignored our zoning code. Five of seven members voted to grant transformative density, FAR, parking, and setback variances sought to facilitate the conversion of the Maclean street Masonic temple into an apartment building. 10 units were approved for a 7,473 square foot lot, resulting in a density of circa 58 units per acre in the heart of the Witherspoon Jackson neighborhood. As staff observed — repeatedly — that density exceeds the 38 units per acre approved for the hospital site, the 23.8 units per acre approved for the Waxwood, the 13.5 units per acre typical of the neighborhood, and the 2 units that the site is permitted under the existing zoning.

The building’s former use as a meeting hall for the black community gives the structure sentimental value as well as historic value. Housing advocates are impressed both by the two “affordable” units that will be created below grade and by the promise of undersized apartments targeted at people from the neighborhood — albeit with rents expected to range initially from $1,500 to $2,500 per month. The proposed design is admittedly attractive. And the developer seems genuinely sympathetic to the desires of his neighbors.

Laws, however, have no meaning unless they are enforced equitably. “We like the project” is not sufficient reason to grant variances. Nor is “we don’t like the project” sufficient reason to withhold approval when proposals comply with existing zoning. Flagrant disregard for our zoning code undermines our ability to protect our neighborhoods. The magnitude of the variances approved for the Masonic temple will necessarily be precedent setting — in no small part because the granting of those variances was so plainly capricious. Since residential land values are directly correlated with the number of units that can be built, the density variance can be expected to be especially pernicious. As I mentioned before Wednesday’s vote, a quintupling in permitted density will be construed as open season for speculators. Tear-downs and increases in assessed values will not be far behind, with the predictable result that property taxes will balloon — in a neighborhood still reeling from the effects of our last reassessment.

I suggest that nobody on the zoning board has any idea how many currently affordable Witherspoon Jackson residences will be rendered unaffordable by the coming tax increases. Nor do board members seem to grasp how quickly land speculation can transform a neighborhood that most of them profess to want to protect. Whatever the board’s intentions, our barn doors are now wide open.

Peter Marks

Moore Street