Historic commission finds demolition proposal at Our Lady of the Rosary site would have adverse effect

Home City Development presented an early-stage overview of plans to redevelop the Our Lady of the Rosary Parish site and three associated parcels into a scattered-site affordable housing project totaling about 55 units.

A project representative who identified themselves as the Home City Development project manager said multiple buildings on the site, including a rectory and a former school, appear to be in such deteriorated condition that the team believes demolition is necessary to meet state affordable-housing cost-per-unit requirements. "We would be looking at a request for a demolition of all three buildings on the site so that we could build new 100% affordable housing," the project manager said.

Commissioners and preservation advocates pushed back. A representative from the Preservation Trust and several commissioners argued the rectory and 334 Franklin Street show architectural significance and might be candidates for adaptive reuse. Commissioners asked whether written structural, asbestos and hazardous-materials reports exist; the project manager said those reports were in progress but not yet complete. Several commissioners said a single contractor opinion is insufficient without written documentation.

Commissioners debated whether a determination of no adverse effect was supportable at this stage. One commissioner said that, based on what had been presented, any demolition would be an adverse effect. The commission voted to find that the proposed demolition would have an adverse effect on the study area and recorded that finding on the administrative record.

The commission asked the applicant to provide structural and hazardous-materials reports and indicated that a demo-delay or other preservation-review procedures could be triggered if a demolition delay application is filed. Commissioners said they remain open to seeing further documentation that could change the determination, but at this meeting they recorded an adverse-effect finding.