A proposal to build a seven-story building in Four Corners drew a mix of support and reservations from neighbors who participated in a Dec. 4 virtual meeting hosted by the Boston Planning Dept.

The Webster family, longtime owners of the existing Down Home Delivery restaurant at 2-8 Bowdoin St., hopes to replace the current building with a new structure that would contain 22 housing units and an updated ground-level eatery.

“As some of you know, Four Corners has been a depressed pass-through commercial node for quite some time and it sits squarely between Codman Square and Grove Hall,” said Gary Webster, the lead proponent. “We have designed and plan to permit a project designed to be the crowning building of Four Corners. We want it to be a part of this overall regeneration and revitalization of this entire area.”

The proposal includes a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments on floors 2-7 with a balcony on the seventh floor and a roof deck on top. There would be no parking associated with the project. A 2,400-square-foot first-floor commercial space would house the revamped Down Home Restaurant.

Residents and merchants who spoke during the virtual meeting were largely impressed with the look and vibe of the building, but several people raised concerns.

“If you put a building of that height, it sets a precedent for the other buildings in the area,” said Danah Tench, chair of the Greater Chamberlain Neighborhood Association. “We could end up with this tunnel-like closed off feel for our very small neighborhood center.

“Even if this building is the only seven-story building here, I think it would look incredibly odd,” she continued. “I think it could still be a crown jewel at a lower height.”

Joyce Harvey, co-chair of the Harvard-Washington Neighborhood Association, agreed. “I feel it could be too claustrophobic and closing in on us,” she said.

Neighbor Elizabeth Mitchell said part of the reservations lie not so much in the Websters’ project, which has already been vetted by abutters and other civic leaders, but in what the future might be under the city’s new Squares + Streets initiative, a controversial re-zoning effort that includes Four Corners and Codman Square.

“I think it’s important for the community to get a good understanding of what Squares + Streets will be, so we don’t have seven-story buildings on every corner,” said Mitchell. “I do think having this building on this corner at this height is great because it becomes the centerpiece for Four Corners.”

Caltor McLean, who recently re-opened a block of storefronts across the street from the Webster property, praised the plan and pledged his full support.

“I welcome the height because it’s the crown we’ve been expecting to come,” he said. “I am very appreciative because Gary is an African American family man who has invested his time and money into the community. They could have easily packed it up and let someone else develop it and taken his funds and moved on…It’s just what we’re really looking forward to in this community.”

Stafford Lewis, a board member of Greater Four Corners Action Coalition, said he understands concern about height, but he still supports the proposal.

“I will shift my support to the project because from a business perspective…I understand how dollars work,” he said. “I understand the trepidation some have but with the necessary restraints and controls in place for other projects coming down the pike, we would have the necessary engagement and understanding that those projects would have to have some limitations.”

Lewis, who works in construction, was more concerned about how jobs on the project will be filled, particularly since union members from the Carpenters union and Ironworkers Local 7 had advocated at the meeting for using union labor.

“I see the unions are looking to feast at this table and I hope this would be a community-driven project and people of Four Corners would have to get these temporary construction jobs,” he said.

Local 7 Business Agent Tom Pecoraro said they have members in the community.

“We have plenty of Boston residents that live in the Four Corners area,” he said. “It’s not like this would be New Hampshire people working there,” he said.

The comment period for the project ended on Dec. 13, but it remains under review in the Planning Department’s Small Project Article 80 review process.