The Mount Hope Canterbury Neighborhood Association (MHC) met with representatives from Rogerson Communities recently to discuss a potential redevelopment of 780 American Legion Hwy.

The property, which currently houses the Home for Little Wanderers, has been a topic of redevelopment discussion for years, with the Home originally looking to add housing to pay for an upgraded building to serve its population. The building also houses the MHCs monthly meetings.

That plan never happened so Rogerson Communities is now proposing a new senior living, mostly-affordable 145 units with 49 parking spaces.

Rogerson Vice President of Real Estate Construction and Design Ken Crisafulli said they are very, very early in the design stages right now, and brought only massing images and the projects expected required variances from the current zoning code (height, floor area ratio, multi-family as a use, lot size and insufficient parking). He said right now they want to get a feel from the community as to what residents want to see in that space.

I like to say that were still baking this design as we go through the process, because its not done yet, he said.

Crisafulli presented a five-story building with stepped-back wings on the eastern side as they approach the Canterbury Street neighborhood. Crisafulli said this is to reduce shadow impact on neighbors.

Boston Planning Departments Brianna Millor also attended the meeting and said while the project will go through the Boston Planning Article 80 Large Project Review Process, one usual step of that process may be missing because Crisafulli said they are aiming for 100 percent affordability on the proposal, meaning all the apartments would be income-restricted based on percentages of the area median income (AMI). Millor said if this is the case then there would be no impact advisory group (IAG) formed and no additional meetings with the community outside of the public meetings required by the city. Millor said they want to streamline 100-percent affordable development as much as possible, presumably so as to entice more such development in the future.

However, Crisafulli said that wasnt a sure thing, and while most of the units will be affordable some may be market rate if they cant get the funding together. So there could be an IAG in the future.

Crisafulli said they are looking to keep as many trees that are on the site now as possible, including a large tree in the east/back of the site that he wants to use as a centerpiece for an outdoor courtyard for residents. He also said they are looking to build a sort of indoor greenhouse near that area so residents can enjoy it year-round. He added they are also designing the building as a passive house making it as energy efficient and green as possible.

The major issue of debate concerned parking and traffic. Residents pointed out that there is one bus line for both east/west and north/south travel and they run at least every hour, if not more. Crisafulli said they would perform a full traffic study to count cars and vehicle trips and estimated trips generated by the new building. The aim would be for limited, if any, parking for residents.

We can put it through zoning that there will be no spots available for the senior living residents in the building, he said. We can do it that way. I get it folks. Thats allowable.

Residents said they dont want to see the buildings residents parking in the neighborhoods. Crisafulli said with the aim of deep affordability for the project its unlikely that they would have cars. In his experience with similar developments, like the Fransworth House in Roslindale Square, cars arent really an issue.

For the amount were charging, most of them, I mean in my experience, none of them have cars, he said .We will look into the question as we go through the process and figure out what to do about it. Thats an honest answer.

Cars are expensive, Millor added.

Crisafulli said he and his team will return with updated plans in future meetings. He also offered the Rogerson Roslindale House the former Roslindale High School for meetings when and if construction at the Home for Little Wanderers makes the location inoperable.