Zoning and Licensing Committee Tables Decision on 12 Louisburg Square Again

After the applicant and abutters again failed to reach a consensus on the project, the Beacon Hill Civic Association (BHCA) Zoning and Licensing Committee voted Wednesday to table its decision on 12 Louisburg Square for the second month in a row.

The applicant has undertaken construction to convert the three-family house into a single-family unit in multiple phases. His revised construction plans include building a roof-deck on the existing ell; constructing a 3-story bay window on the south façade of the ell and creating a two-story library in the ell; expanding and raising the existing dormer and moving systems from the roof of the ell to the roof-deck; expanding habitable space beneath the existing steel terrace-deck in the rear garden; adding an elevator; and excavating the basement to create mechanical space and services, laundry and storage space and a gym and studio space. Together, these proposed modifications would result in an aggregate increase of 480 square feet for the building.

The applicant’s attorney, Larry DiCara of the Boston law firm Nixon Peabody, said the project requires a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) variance from the city.

DiCara said since the June 6 Zoning and Licensing Committee meeting when the proposal was initially tabled, the applicant had met with abutters and agreed to reduce the sizes of the roof-deck and dormer, among other concessions.

“We’ve made some progress,” DiCara said. “We’re not there, but we’re closer than we were.”

Direct abutters subsequently requested that the sizes of the roof-deck and dormer be further reduced, and that the applicant not build windows on the sides of the ell facing their homes.

The abutters also asked that the “good neighbor” agreement, which the applicant has agreed to enter into with the BHCA, be expanded to include sound protection and other preventivemeasures.

As a term of the decision to table the matter, the applicant is required to provide a written agreement signed by all the direct abutters to the committee before it would review the proposal again.

Meanwhile, the committee voted not to oppose another applicant’s proposal to build a 45 square-foot kitchen addition on the existing ell at the rear of a single-family home at 107 Myrtle St.

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