Shuttered Allston restaurant to get 14 apartments built on top of it

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by City Realty to add four stories and 14 apartments to the building where the Glenville Stops bar used to be at 85-93 Glenville Ave. in Allston.

City Realty said it would keep the ground floor space for a possible restaurant.

The company also said it would agree to requests from the Allston Civic Association to not rent to undergraduates and to not allow short-term rentals - although a liaison from ISD cautioned that the city can't legally enforce the no-student policy.

The project needed zoning-board approval because, despite being surrounded by 3- and 4-story apartment buildings, the lot is zoned for just a two-family house no taller than 35 feet. Also, no parking is proposed for the building.

City Realty attorney George Morancy said the building will have "ample" bicycle storage space, is a three-minute walk from the Griggs Street Green Line stop and is aimed at a new generation of prospective Allston residents who neither have nor want a car.

Three of the units would be rented as affordable - two to people making no more than 70% of the Boston area median income, one to people making no more than 100% of that level.