By Karen Klinger

Since it opened in 1889, St. James’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge’s Porter Square has been a neighborhood icon, ministering to its own congregation and to the community through good times and bad, even as its membership waxed and waned and building maintenance costs strained its budget.

Now, members of the Richardsonian-style stone church, located at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Beech Street, are talking about joining forces with a local developer to build an estimated 48 upscale condominium units on a portion of its property and an adjoining lot, which would give them a $3 million endowment and a new, much-needed parish house.

At a recent meeting of the Porter Square Neighbors Association, St. James’s pastor, the Rev. Holly Lyman Antolini, appeared with Oaktree Development partner Gwen Noyes to discuss tentative plans for a four-story condo project built partly on a lot now occupied by the Cambridge Car Wash at 2013 Massachusetts Ave. and partly on leased church property.

As currently envisioned, the project would have roughly an “L” shape, wrapping around the church and its much-loved “Knights Garden,” planted in 1918, following the design of one-time Cambridge city planner John Nolan. The current parish hall would be demolished and replaced by offices and activity spaces on the first floor of the condo building, with 54 underground parking spaces.

Mindful that the city places an emphasis on retaining first-floor retail space in developments that have Massachusetts Avenue frontage, Noyes said the plan also allows for about 1,000 square feet of retail activity.

She said that while the project would not need a variance, its size would require a city-issued special permit, which in turn would require a public hearing.

Plan Could Face Neighborhood Opposition

And that may pose a significant stumbling block.

Since the plan’s unveiling, the response of abutting property owners and nearby residents has ranged from cautious skepticism to something short of outright opposition. Porter Square residents are asking whether what’s good for the church is also good for the surrounding neighborhood.

If the project were built as envisioned, vehicles going into and out of the underground garage would use a ramp accessed from Beech Street, a two-block span linking Massachusetts Avenue and Elm Street that already has frequent traffic backups during rush hours. (Full disclosure: The writer lives on Beech Street).

In addition, the four-story condo building would loom over abutting multi-family homes on Orchard Street—which intersects Beech--replacing the view of the church property that residents have now. “It would have a significant impact—you’d be dominating a neighborhood of single family and two-family houses,” abutting property owner John Armstrong said at the PSNA meeting.

Some neighborhood residents also have questioned whether Cambridge, a city with a serious shortage of affordable housing, really needs another upscale condo project in an already congested neighborhood when it currently has hundreds of $400,000-plus condos on the market amid a deepening recession.

Condo Project’s Prices Far Exceed Local Income

Census figures adjusted for inflation indicate that since the beginning of the nation’s housing bubble in 2000, the median cost of a housing unit in Cambridge has increased by three times the rate of the growth of median household income. While Noyes was vague about specifics of the condo project, the St. James’s website projects that it would include 13 one-bedroom market rate units priced at $415,000—nearly seven times the median Cambridge household income—and 27 two-bedroom units at $595,000, about 10 times the median income.

Armstrong and his wife, Patricia, who own a two-family house at 34 Orchard Street, also questioned the upstairs/downstairs nature of a development in which residents of half-million dollar homes lived above spaces where the church was operating such outreach programs as a food pantry that serves low-income residents, including the 20 percent who currently live below the poverty line in Cambridge.

Antolini responded that “we do not intend to change our ministerial activities,” which in addition to the food pantry include providing space to community groups such as the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and meals to the homeless through its “Outdoor Church.”

Noyes said that if the arrangement with the church fell through, Oaktree still could build up to 20 condo units on the car wash property, with underground parking that would have vehicles use Massachusetts Avenue to get in and out. In that case, she said it could do so “by right” under current zoning regulations without the need for a special permit or variance.

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