South End residents and activists who eagerly await the restoration and redevelopment of the Alexandra Hotel at the corner of Washington Street and Massachusetts Avenue and former site of the Ivory Bean House at 1769 Washington Street, will have to bide their time further. On Tuesday, September 2, Marc Lacasse, attorney for the Church of Scientology which has owned the two properties for almost 7 years, sought and obtained from the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) a deferral of its appeal hearing on its development plan and requested variances to December 16. The Church's plan seeks to combine the two properties at 631 Massachusetts Avenue, at the corner of Washington Street, and at 1767 Washington Street to create a headquarters for the Church with offices and a Scientology bookstore and cafe. Lacasse requested the additional time to complete the project's Article 80 Small Project Review filing with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). The vacant lot where the Ivory Bean House once stood and the Alexandra Hotel site are now known jointly as 1767 Washington Street, and the Church proposes to restore the Alexandra and build an addition on the Ivory Bean lot.

The Chester Square Area Neighborhood Association (CSANA) wrote to the Zoning Board earlier this year opposing the Church's request for change of use until the Church explains to CSANA and the surrounding community its intentions for the redevelopment plan and solicits neighborhood input. CSANA president Sara Mitchell provided excerpts of CSANA's letter to the zoning board: "The building, known as the Alexandra Hotel, is a very prominent landmark and deserves careful consideration...We remain unclear about what development the owner intends with this property as well as with the now vacant land adjoining the Alexandra Hotel...The Chester Square Area Neighborhood Association requests that the Zoning Board of Appeal deny without prejudice any application by this proponent until the party has informed the neighborhood of its plans at a regularly scheduled meeting of this association." In response to Tuesday's deferral of the Church's ZBA hearing on the 1767 Washington Street project, Mitchell wrote in an e-mail, "We look forward to seeing what the Church of Scientology plans for the Alexandra Hotel."

Members of the Worcester Square Area Neighborhood Association (WSANA) have also voiced concern for years about when the 1767 Washington Street redevelopment will take place. The neighborhood associations and others involved in community planning see the prominent location at the corner of two major thoroughfares as the cornerstone of future development along Washington Street to link the South End and Dudley Square business districts. Moreover, neighbors are worried about the deterioration of the long-empty Alexandra building and the future of the now-vacant lot where the Ivory Bean house stood before its demolition in 2011.

In a telephone interview, Lacasse expressed frustration with neighbors who charge that they have been left in the dark about the development approval process and with the lack of on-line access to ZBA and Inspectional Services Department records on hearings, appeals, filings and decisions. "I get chills up my spine when people talk about the need for more transparency. I cringe when people come to community meetings and say "I didn't know about this." There are ads in the newspapers, ZBA calendar listings, and abutters within 300 feet are notified by mail that ZBA are going to hold a hearing on that property." He also conceded that the development approval process is complex and lacking in transparency, partly due to the lack of modernization of notification and record-keeping. "This process is dense and can seem complicated form the outside but there is a lot of information out there. You just have to look for it," Lacasse said, adding, "ZBA and ISD need to put the documents on-line as they do on the BRA web site. It's fantastic. They need to do the same thing with renderings, floor plans, descriptions of properties. It would be really nice if appeals filed by applicants were on line, too. Now when I file appeals at ISD for zoning cases they scan it in so it ends up in a database." Lacasse feels that the Walsh administration is making progress in creating better access to the public of development documentation. He observed, "In my experience in the first 8 months of the Walsh administration, he gets it. He is instructing departments across the city to make it easier to do business. Some of these permitting procedures have been in place since the colonial era and they haven't been updated. Michelle Wu has been all over this issue as well. She has been conducting hearings to streamline permitting for businesses."

Article 80 of the Boston Zoning Code requires a review that examines the project's conformity to zoning code design guidelines and the project's impact on the surrounding neighborhood in areas such as parking, traffic and the neighborhood's natural and historic features. The 1767 Washington Street project qualifies for small-project review under article 80 because the proposed development totals less than 50,000 square feet.