The age old question: if you build it, where will they park?

That was the big topic at the Boston Planning Board meeting recently for the proposed Roslindale buildings at 4301 Washington St.

The project boasts 16 condo units, three of which will be affordable under the city’s Inclusionary Development Policy, no zoning relief required (thanks to Squares+Streets (S+S) – more on that later), and seven parking spaces.

Developer and managing partner of Alpine Property Group Steve Vettori said the company bought the current property about a year ago, and said it has been, “Vacant, vacant for some time.” He said three years ago the company built 11 Taft Hill Terrace, a similar 16-unit condo building.

“That was kind of our first foray into developing in Roslindale, and then on the heels of the S+S initiative, we thought there might be opportunity to revisit Roslindale and purchased 4301 Washington just over a year ago,” he said.

Several residents spoke in favor of the project, including several direct abutters, but some spoke against the project particularly in terms of parking spaces.

“When you have 40 bedrooms in 16 units with seven parking spaces, it seems to me that’s going to take up a significant percentage of the on-street parking places in the Village,” said resident Doug Creed. “What is to be done about that?”

Boston Planning Project Manager Tyler Ross said the parking numbers came out of the S+S process, which was done over the course of 2024 and 2025, and now parking requirements are based on floor area ration, as listed in the S+S zoning amendment – https://gvimes.link/parkingreqs

“I think the thinking in bringing a proposal like this with limited parking is the future tenants, or homeowners as they are here, not all of them will be car owners,” Ross said. “You’ll be looking at this building and see it doesn’t have enough parking for your two cars. But those who do commute with the MBTA or bike, this might be the perfect home for them.”

Creed pointed out that, according to the city’s own data – https://gvimes.link/roscars -- about 80 percent of those who live in Roslindale own cars. Indeed, the number of people in Greater Boston who own a car has trended both up and down over the last few decades – https://gvimes.link/boscars

Boston, or at least the Greater Boston Metro Area (at least some of the criteria appears to be in Cambridge) was named the friendliest place to ditch your car for public transit – https://gvimes.link/carless

But Creed said it’s important to note the historical data, and pointed out that local businesses could suffer if customers can’t drive to reach them.

“My concern primarily is that we not end up with the parking mayhem we have in, say, Brighton or Allston; in that parking study there was already concern that within the area of Roslindale Village, the onstreet parking was largely utilized – there were some municipal parking lots not fully utilized – it’s already pretty crowded during the business day and that has an impact on the businesses of the Square,” he said. “That number of parking spaces has no relationship to the historical facts that we know about car ownership in Roslindale. Everyone can say, ‘Gee, how terrific it will be that people won’t need these cars,’ but that has not been born out in any reality about what we know about car utilization in Roslindale.”

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Resident and Roslindale Coalition Organizer Laurie Radwin said she was happy to see the site getting an update, but questioned the methods of S+S and how it arrived at its zoning regulations.

“The problem with S+S zoning is that it doesn’t approach the Square holistically,” she said. “Planning has a role, Small Business (the city office) has a role, transportation has a role, but they do not seem to be talking to one another about the positives and the challenges about buildings like these. For example, small business and (Roslindale Village Main Streets) RVMS – I don’t see any abutting small business owners on this call.”

Radwin asked about notification, and Ross said all notifications about Boston Planning project meetings are available through an email list – https://gvimes.link/getinvolved – and the onus is on residents to get involved with their neighborhoods.

Radwin added that many of the small businesses in the Square have customers coming in from out of town.

“I had a conversation with an owner today about the fact that his employees and customers do not come in on public transportation, and if they don’t have a place to park they’ll stop coming,” she said. “When you talk to even the retail owners about how the density here so far has improved their business, it has not. If you look at the abutting personal services shops, their customers – I’ve sat in there, I’ve known them for years and practiced my Spanish – their customers come from Sharon or Quincy and they drive in. They will stop coming and have stopped coming because of the parking, and especially the two-hour parking restriction and the tickets they’re getting.”

Next-door neighbor Julia Pelkofsky said her family is actually under-utilizing the parking in their building.

“We have three three-bedroom units and we have two cars for four parking spots,” she said. “The two families that do have cars are single-car only families. My husband and I used to have a car, but we no longer do. And being right next door to this building I can speak very plainly that having a car is not necessary, and we are currently under-utilizing our parking lot. The building on the other side of this development? It’s two units with two cars, only one car per unit. So I think it’s a very short bus ride to Forest Hills and there are five different buses you can take, so we’re never waiting long for any of them.”

Resident Nikki Kong applauded the lack of parking.

“I’m definitely excited to not see 16 parking spots in this building,” she said. “I actually think the Taft Terrace may have too many parking spots so I applaud the architect and developer on this for only including seven in this. I’m very excited to see high density units coming really close to Rozzie Village. I don’t think everywhere in the neighborhood has the same number of car owners, and I think this location could benefit from the abundance of buses that come down Washington Street.”