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Medford residents send letter to Community Development Board, urge it to oppose the height of Tufts’ proposed residence hall
The university recently raised the height of the proposed building from seven stories to 10.
A proposed Tufts University dorm building on Boston Avenue in Medford has raised concerns from neighbors, over 50 of whom signed a letter to the City of Medford’s Community Development Board.
Tufts originally announced the plan for a new dorm in April 2021, when it issued $250 million in bonds to fund a list of on-campus development projects, including a new dorm. In November 2022, the university said it would build a seven-story residence hall on Boston Avenue, but in September 2024, raised it to 10 stories.
Why do some Medford residents oppose the new Tufts dorm building?
Some residents of the Medford Hillside neighborhood have banded together to push back on plans for the proposed building. In a letter to the Community Development Board, sent Nov. 18, they urged it to evaluate whether Tufts’ proposal for a building with 10 floors addresses issues like building height, light and sound pollution, traffic and transportation impacts, and pedestrian and cyclist safety.
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There were concerns about potential sound and light pollution and new shadows cast on the neighborhood when the building was only going to be seven stories, and the new building would only exacerbate those issues, the neighbors said.
“Additional increases in sound and light pollution compromise community health and local property values,” they wrote in the letter, adding that significant net new shadow cast on homes and yards to the north and east of the building could start as early in 3:30 p.m. in the spring and fall and 12:30 p.m. in the winter.
In the letter, they also said that a project of this scale should include investments in the public realm, such as “innovative on-site stormwater management; improved sidewalks; protected bike lanes; defined space for queuing and deliveries; frequent, well-lit, and well-marked crosswalks; and the replanting of new canopy trees — on both sides of the avenue, along the entire length of the project site.”
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They asked the Board to consider whether the proponents of the project are truly protected by the Dover Amendment — a Massachusetts law that exempts certain uses from zoning restrictions, such as educational, agricultural, and religious uses — and whether the project should require a full site plan review and a special permit.
“Specifically, the addition of three floors to the building design is directly connected and consequential to the introduction of a for-profit development partner, who will continue to manage and profit from this project for years to come, while the neighborhood bears the impact of the oversized building,” they wrote.
The letter reiterates that the group is generally supportive of the concept behind the project, but that the current proposal should not be approved.
The group submitted its letter at a meeting of the Community Development Board on Nov. 20. The Board did not respond to a request for comment from Boston.com.
Tufts responds to residents’ concerns
Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations for the university, said Tufts is “aware” of neighbors’ concerns about the height of the building. He added that “we look forward to continuing to work with the city and our neighbors to get the project approved.”
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Collins described the residence hall as part of an “ongoing effort” by the university to provide more on-campus housing options for the more than 6,000 undergraduate students who attend Tufts. The building, he said, “meets many of the city’s and university’s shared goals: more on-campus housing, mixed use development, transit-oriented design, and an energy efficient building design that meets the city’s specialized energy code.”
The proposed building would provide housing for 677 juniors and seniors, most of whom currently rent in Medford or Somerville, freeing up apartments for non-Tufts-affiliated residents. Tufts plans to add crosswalks, sidewalks, trees, retail options, and a Bluebikes station to Boston Avenue, Collins said, which will make it “greener, more walkable, and more accessible.”
‘A monolith above our horizon here’
But, Hillside residents maintain that the building is too tall. Several of them submitted additional letters that outlined similar concerns as the group’s letter.
Adrienne Rae Landau, a resident of Brookings Street for 27 years, called the ten-story building “out of scale with the area, a monolith above our horizon here.”
“What are all the ways such a monolith will impact the lives of people in these homes, most of whom are owners and therefore taxpayers?” Landau wrote, distinguishing permanent residents of Medford from the students who would only be temporarily living in the resident hall.
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Janey Tallarida, a resident of Charnwood Road, also took issue with the size of the proposed building, even before it was heightened to 10 stories.
“The size of that [six-to-seven-story] building felt too large for the Hillside neighborhood but at least was comparable to the adjacent parking garage and likely small enough to not add additional shadow…this [ten-story building] is a massive change from the previous proposal. This mammoth building is vastly out of scale with a neighborhood consisting of triple decker homes and small bungalows,” Tallarida wrote.
She said it would have a “huge negative impact” on the Medford community through new shadows and light pollution, and by creating the precedent for “out-of-scale” development by the university.
“The city should hold Tufts accountable for considering the whole community and not just its own needs,” Tallarida wrote.
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