To the Editor:

What an outrage!  I attended the May 21 Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) zoom hearing on a development at 243D Savin Hill Ave. Against the opposition of all the abutters directly affected, a thumb’s-down by the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association Planning Committee and general membership in 2019 and again in 2024 – not to mention a 40-signature petition, the ZBA, in all its unanimous arrogance, ignored this community of residents and property taxpayers and approved this development.  

And for what?  To construct an unsightly, oversized anomaly to the surrounding homes, leaving us with generations of ugly residue from this development.  

This approval is an environmental disaster.  It wipes out a copse of mature trees affecting the environment and air quality for decades. It will eliminate the abutting flood zone now guarded by these trees.  It will inhibit the site’s natural ability to control the storm water.  It egregiously violates allowed minimum lot frontage, putting the front door of 243D Savin Hill Ave. facing the backyards of the existing homes, encroaching on their private property and personal space.  But all this means nothing to the ZBA.  

Shame on the ZBA.  We only have them to blame for the precedent-setting standards forever changing historic districts of old Victorian homes and open green space into ugly overdeveloped neighborhoods that will have everlasting environmental devastation.  

This is not the first of their supercilious “who gives a damn” votes.  We have seen many and it is expected now that there is no stopping them from destroying what’s left of Boston’s beautiful neighborhoods.  

What do they care about and why do they vote the way they do?  Taxpayers are paying for this sham of a board, and it should be abolished.  

I ask our environmentally conscious mayor to stand with the voters and residents and not greedy developers and rid us of the ZBA..

Donna Blythe-McColgan
Savin Hill Avenue
Executive Board Member
Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association