LDS Church Update

Jessica Scarpati from the TAB had an update last night on the meeting between Mormon Church officials and Fisher Hill residents on the proposed meetinghouse development on Catlin Rd. According to Jessica's report, the church officials have agreed to move the entrance to their meetinghouse from small, private Catlin Rd to an entrance to be built on Route 9 instead.

For those who aren't familiar with the property, it's a large single family home on Fisher Hill overlooking the reservoir with a sub-dividable lot along Rt. 9. It is the property on the corner of Catlin and Boylston. This home was on the market for most of the past year until the LDS officials stepped in and purchased it hoping for Dover Amendment protection. We shall see what happens here, because Fisher Hill residents are extremely protective of their neighborhood. The TAB should have a full story on the meeting last night with some diagrams of the proposal, so stay tuned...

While you're reading the TAB, take a look at this article.

Bringing Down the House

Judging from the site traffic today the front page of the Boston Herald is driving a lot of interest to the John Henry purchase of Frank McCourt's Brookline Estate. I will see what as-of-now unreported information I can dig up.

The thing to note is that it should not be too surprising that Mr. Henry plans to knock down a mult-million dollar estate. People of Henry's echelon who have worked so hard to get to that magnitude of success have earned the right to live as comfortably as they want to, and Brookline isn't exactly creating new buildable land anytime soon.

What should be very interesting is how the impending LDS Church debate will impact the zoning on Mr. Henry's plans. Can there be a double standard?

Stay tuned...

Major Controversy

Both the Sunday Globe and the Brookline TAB today had major articles about the recent purchase of the 12 Catlin Road property on Fisher Hill. Now, if you want the overview of the story, the links cover it. Why is this such an interesting story? This is not a social or political blog, so I'll let everyone make their own decisions on this.

Where this story gets interesting is with the application or more correctly the protection of the Dover Amendment. In certain cases communities have exempted businesses and organizations from "Dover" protection. Harvard is no longer protected in Cambridge, for example, because of their size and ability to purchase land necessary for their uses.

Would it be possible for Brookline to step in here? First, I find it very unlikely because we're dealing with a house of worship and not a business entity or educational monster. I believe the Mormon Church is smart enough and large enough that they can get plans to the town and the community that make them realize that this is not a huge disruption.

Now, I happen to have a tiny bit of inside insight here. I did a listing presentation at this property a while ago. My indication is this is a very proud neighborhood filled with people very protective of their privacy and their exclusivity. One thing they are forgetting is there's a college in the middle of their neighborhood too. Now, the college is not on Catlin road, but it's in the middle of Fisher Hill, and the traffic implications of that institution are a lot greater than this property which is as far on the outskirts of the neighborhood as possible.

Again, my guess is plans will be submitted, the neighborhood activists will speak their piece, and the project will be settled amicably between the neighbors and the Church. Let's face it, we live in Brookline, one of the most unique communities around. It would be very unlike us to start excluding a religious organization.

In closing, Happy New Year to all of those celebrating today, and as always please keep the Breast Cancer Research Fund in mind.