I am a 30-year resident of Louders Lane, a bucolic street down the block from the proposed 920 Centre Street high-rise which includes 158 units of luxury condominiums, a massive development on a site zoned for a small fraction of that density.

Yes, we need affordable housing options in Boston.

We don’t need housing that does not address affordable home ownership.

We don’t need housing that will add overwhelming additional traffic that will pose pedestrian safety risks for abutters and commuters that will be generated in an area already choked with traffic from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. every day.

We don’t need a towering development creating shadows beside our world-class Arnold Arboretum, and one that will upset a delicate ecosystem that is the pride of our neighborhood and of Boston itself.

This proposed development is outsized and out of character for our neighborhood.

I’m not writing for myself: we sold our home this summer to retire to Maine. I’m writing on behalf of my friends and neighbors. I wish them luck navigating the additional traffic to get to the grocery store, the post office, or drop children at the Manning School. They will need it.

Alison Cohen

Jamaica Plain

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