Housing proposed for Belmont church site

All buildings on the 1.5-acre site would be demolished, according to Jay Szklut, the town’s planning and economic development manager.

The town’s Historic District Commission wants to save the parish rectory but a spokesman for the archdiocese said the soil under it is contaminated and it must come down.

The developer, Ron Lopez of North Shore Construction and Development, has a purchase and sale agreement for the property. He has filed plans with the town, which are being reviewed by the Planning Board, Szklut said.

The plans are among dozens of development proposals filed in recent years for church properties throughout Greater Boston that became available when the archdiocese began closing parishes that it determined were no longer needed.

The Belmont Planning Board has held one hearing on the proposal. The next hearing is scheduled for July 29.

“We are in the process of revising plans based on comments recently received from the town departments and Planning Board,’’ Lopez said in an e-mail. “We are hoping to have the revised plans prepared for [July’s] Planning Board meeting - they will be available for review at that time.’’

Lopez’s initial proposal calls for the construction of 17 town-house-style units, which will be spread out on the property. The buildings that would be demolished include the church, a building that housed the town’s senior center, and the rectory, Szklut said. The town’s senior center remained at the site until March when its lease ran out.

Michael Smith, the chairman of the Belmont Historic District Commission, said the rectory is a 1900 arts and crafts home, which is not on a historic register, but is likely eligible for the designation because of its unique style.

However, Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, said the archdiocese has already filed for a permit to demolish the structure because the soil under it is contaminated with heating oil. The town has until Saturday to issue a demolition permit, Smith said.

Donilon said officials discovered the contamination while preparing to sell the site.

“We’ve tried every which way to correct it under the building,’’ Donilon said. “We can’t. In the process, we discovered the building was compromised. It’s going to have to come down.’’

Smith said he has asked the archdiocese to consider demolishing only the portion of the building over the contaminated soil, which was an addition to the rectory and has no historical significance.

“There would be additional expense to shore up the building and enclose it,’’ Smith said. “This, we don’t think is reason to tear down this wonderful old building. We haven’t been successful in convincing them in the value of doing that.’’

Donilon said the archdiocese plans to move forward with demolition once the permit is granted. “We’ll wait for that process to play out but at the end of the day, the building’s compromised,’’ Donilon said.

To avoid similar situations in the future, Smith said, town officials are drafting a demolition review bylaw of historic structures.

Smith said there was never any effort to save the actual church building, though there is an incentive in the zoning regulations if the building was reused.

The archdiocese in 2004 announced that it would close or merge 65 churches as part of its reconfiguration plan. Forty-three parishes have gone out of use since the consolidation started. As of March 2009, 33 parish properties have been sold, bringing in $67 million. There are three properties under agreement and three on the market.

Many churches that have been sold are being used for places of worship or have been converted into condominiums.

In Concord, the church and rectory of Our Lady Help of Christians were purchased by the Boston Society of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in 2006 and continue to be used as a place of worship.

After the archdiocese closed the church, the town of Concord created a historic district to preserve the Our Lady Help of Christians building from demolition or exterior changes.

But in Arlington, St. Jerome church was torn down, though the rectory building was saved. Six single-family homes were built on the site.

In Belmont, only Our Lady of Mercy is for sale. After the archdiocese announced it was closing the property, the town put special zoning in place to encourage development there. Szklut said residents didn’t want the site to stay vacant but wanted to have some control over changes.

Before the 2007 zoning change, the site was zoned residential. Five single-family homes could fit on the site, but Szklut said it was probably too small to be economically viable for a developer after demolition costs.

The new zoning allows for more units, 18, but gives the town more control over the final design, Szklut said. If the developer reused the church, the site could have an additional unit, to a maximum of 19.

Szklut said the bylaw did not mention the rectory because no one expected it would be razed.

Jennifer Fenn Lefferts can be reached at jflefferts@yahoo.com.