The parking lot across from the Coolidge Corner Library could become a 96-unit apartment building with a street-level pocket park, under a revised proposal Nordblom presented to residents Wednesday, July 15.
The developer cut seven units from its original 103-apartment plan for 26 Pleasant Street, added a 25-foot setback from the sidewalk to create green space, and shifted the ground floor toward corporate offices. Fourteen units would be designated affordable under Brookline's inclusionary zoning bylaws, and 48 parking spaces would sit just below grade.
Nordblom vice president Todd Fremont-Smith and attorney Jeffrey Allen told attendees at the community meeting that the changes respond to neighborhood feedback received after the company first proposed a seven-story building on the site in February.
The company pulled its zoning article from Spring Town Meeting in April to rework the design. It will now seek approval at Fall Town Meeting in November.
"We think housing is needed here," Fremont-Smith said at the July 15 meeting.
The 60-space parking lot Nordblom has owned for 60 years generates roughly $35,000 a year in property taxes, according to Brookline.News. The apartment building would bring in an estimated $550,000 annually, though it would also add costs for town and school services.
Not everyone is sold. Town Meeting member Catherine Donaher argued the zoning relief Nordblom is seeking amounts to a "gift to the developer" and called on Town Meeting to offset negative impacts on the neighborhood. Allen pushed back, calling the project "a cooperative endeavor" that benefits the town in multiple ways.
Other residents raised concerns about tree loss, unit affordability, and increased traffic.
The proposal lands in a broader development moment for Coolidge Corner. Next door, Chestnut Hill Realty's far larger Waldo Durgin project — a 14-story, 143-unit residential tower with a 200-room hotel, approved by Town Meeting in 2019 — remains stalled. CEO Ed Zuker said in a July 17 interview that high interest rates, record construction costs, and labor shortages have kept the company from breaking ground despite investing roughly $30 million in the property. Brookline regulatory planning director Polly Selkoe confirmed Chestnut Hill Realty has not formally proposed any design changes, and called the lengthy delay unusual for a major project.
Once Allen submits the formal zoning proposal for 26 Pleasant Street, nearly a dozen public meetings will be scheduled before the November Town Meeting vote, according to Brookline.News. Residents can weigh in at those hearings as the project moves through the approval process.
