CUMBERLAND – The plan to redevelop the former St. Patrick Church site at 301 Broad St. was headed to the Cumberland Planning Board this week for a major land development master plan review.
The applicant, ONE Neighborhood Builders, is looking to build 44 affordable housing units as part of “St. Patrick’s Place” by adaptively reusing the former church itself, rebuilding the rectory, and constructing new townhouses. The applicant is requesting waivers from the zoning ordinance and land development and subdivision regulations.
The Planning Board was set to consider the master plan Wednesday evening, Sept. 28. The Planning Department was recommending approvals of the comprehensive permit and master plan, with certain conditions.
The proposal, according to planning staff, fits the town’s goals to develop affordable housing, bringing the town’s affordable housing percentage back above 6 percent (the town needs about 600 units to get to the state goal of 10 percent), and “will adaptively reuse a striking and locally important church built in 1936, and townhouses added along Broad Street strengthening the continuity of the streetscape and shielding the parking lot from view.”
Further, states the department’s findings, the project includes 12 units reserved exclusively for the elderly, and the project will be built in a neighborhood with public water and sewer and with easy access to public transit on a primary thoroughfare.
