St. Aidan’s Curiosities (5).
By Jim Conley • Aug 21st, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
Print This Post
• Email this author
Spend as much time as I do with documents and you pick up on strange items buried in the text. Such is the case with the Banana Republic of Brookline’s Zoning Board of Appeals decision on the Town and the Boston Archdiocese’s housing project at the former St. Aidan’s Church.
According to the ZBA decision that led to a comprehensive permit for the Archdiocese, the site of the project is designated as: “Assessor’s Map 6; Lot 1″ [click here to view the permit]. But the project’s footprint covers lots 1-3 on the Brookline Assessor’s Map 6 [see map]. Lot One is a gerrymandered parcel that includes the rectory scheduled for the wrecking ball.
It’s not clear to me whether the comprehensive permit covers anything more than lot one (the site designation is as specific as it gets).
And not for nothing, but is it too much too ask of our so-called zoning experts to include all the lots affected by their decision? Maybe the ZBA hearing can re-open the hearings on St. Aidan’s. You know, to hear of new evidence on the project. I hear they do that kind of thing.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
Email this author | All posts by Jim Conley
This post raises several legal issues that may require review by one with lots of legal expertise:
1. The deed for the sale of St. Aidan’s transferred what specific property?
2. The mortgages granted by the purchaser of St. Aidan’s to certain lenders and to the Town included what specific property?
3. Is the site described in the Comprehensive Permit identical to the property described in the deed (item 1) and/or the mortgages (item 2)?
4. Was the public notice for the ZBA proceedings under Chapter 40B accurate in its description of the site to be covered by the application for the Comprehensive Permit?
5. Was the Comprehensive Permit recorded at the Norfolk Registry of Deeds?
6. What does the Title Insurance Policy reveal as the covered site?
The answers may reveal that Brookline is not indeed a Banana Republic but more an Onion Republic requiring more peeling - and crying - than a simple banana. [Note to Onion Dispatch: Please do not pick this up and make Brookline the crying stock of the Nation.]