The Zoning Board of Appeal this week approved plans by the Minority Association of Law Enforcement Officers to replace its current headquarters at 61 Columbia Rd., between Hewins and Seaver streets in Dorchester, with a new building that will include offices, an auditorium, classrooms and a gym.
The group’s plans also call for 27 parking spaces on its roughly half-acre site – and for making the auditorium and gym available for rental for weddings, martial-arts classes and similar uses.
The Boston Planning Department had urged the board to reject the proposal, because of its location on what is a mainly residential stretch of Columbia Road. “We feel that the massing and the parking within this residential block is excessive,” planner Jeff Hampston said. “It doesn’t fit within the context of this neighborhood.”…