On old parish grounds, new ministry

A Somerville nonprofit organization is moving forward with plans to build apartments and condos on the St. Polycarp Church property in Winter Hill.

The Somerville Community Corporation was to go before the Board of Aldermen last week to request a zoning change allowing retail and office space on the ground floor of the apartment building the organization is proposing to build there.

The corporation bought the three-acre parcel and its buildings, including the church, rectory, and school, from the Archdiocese of Boston for $4.6 million in September 2005. In 1999, the archdiocese had asked another Somerville parish, St. Ann Church, to absorb St. Polycarp's parishioners.

``We've been very excited about this project," said Kristin Blum, the nonprofit corporation's director of housing development. ``We think churches have been community assets, and we think they should remain community assets."

Blum said her organization is negotiating with a local congregation that wants to buy the church building. She said the nonprofit Just-A-Start Corporation, which has rented the convent for 20 years, is in the process of buying the rectory, where it will continue running its supportive housing program for young mothers and their children.

The school, convent, and garage on the site will be demolished. The first phase of the project will be a 24-unit, four-story apartment building with 6,600 square feet of office and retail space on the ground floor. In the second phase, the development corporation is planning to build a combination of 60 affordable and market-rate condominiums. The buildings will have ground-floor parking topped by three stories of living space.

Susan Mortimer, a neighbor who has attended several meetings about the future of the church land, said she thinks the proposed development is a good use of the property.

Mortimer, who lives in the nearby Ten Hills community, which is cut off from St. Polycarp by Interstate 93, said adding a mix of renters and homeowners will ``bring the neighborhoods here together."

She said it would be nice to have a place where residents of her neighborhood could mingle with people who live in the proposed apartments and condominiums at St. Polycarp and the Mystic housing development. She said she hoped a community cafe might be included on the ground floor of the apartment building.

``That's what neighborhoods used to be, people mixing around," she said. ``The more you mix with your neighborhood, the tighter the neighborhood is and the better people feel about where they live."

Alderman Walter Pero, who represents the neighborhood, said he supports the project and is glad the archdiocese chose a nonprofit developer rather than a for-profit company to build housing at the site. He said the nearly 140 parking spaces planned for the project should allay neighbors' concerns about tight street parking.

In its 36-year history, Somerville Community Corporation has developed nearly 200 units. This will be the first time the organization has built market-rate condos, which will help fund the construction of the affordable units, Blum said.

Construction of the apartments will not begin for more than a year, she said. Her organization is in the process of trying to secure funding for the project, which will be paid for with a mix of public and private financing.

The group has held a series of public meetings starting before it even submitted its bid to the archdiocese and has run a door-knocking campaign to talk with people in the neighborhood about its plans.