For the Poor Clare sisters who left their Jamaica Plain monastery three years ago, life has been stuck in neutral while City Hall weighs a controversial redevelopment next to the Arnold Arboretum. The sale of the 2.88 acre site cannot close until the city finishes its review, and the sisters say the delay has left them “in a state of crisis” as they try to expand their new home. Their 2023 move to a smaller property in Westwood eased immediate repair woes but left the community scrambling for space and certainty.
What’s proposed at 920 Centre St
The development team is pitching a two part project that would keep the monastery building but dramatically change how it is used. The plan calls for renovating the existing monastery into senior rental apartments and putting up a new mass timber residential building behind it, together creating about 123 housing units. Under the proposal, the former monastery would become 38 senior rental units, 25 of them income restricted, and the new construction would add roughly 85 condominiums. The project also includes parking, long term bicycle storage and about 8,000 square feet of amenity space, details listed on the project’s page, according to BostonPlans.
Arboretum concerns and city review
Next door, Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum is urging the city not to rush this one. Arboretum leaders warn that new construction at the site’s edge could cast shadows, affect views, damage tree roots and alter water runoff, issues the director says call for a perimeter wide approach. The arboretum has already raised about $4 million for entrance improvements, and Boston’s Parks Department is planning a road realignment within the park that could start by 2028. As reported by The Boston Globe, the Planning Department is “urgently working” on the review, and until that process wraps up the sale of the property cannot be completed…