By Karen Klinger

The Cambridge Historical Commission voted December 3 to launch a study that could lead to landmark status for an iconic Porter Square church property, despite warnings that it may derail a plan to build condominiums on the site the church says it needs to maintain its viability.

On a 4-1 vote, with five members absent, the commission brushed aside objections to the move by the rector and members of St. James’s Episcopal Church, located at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Beech Street, and Oaktree Development, which wants to build 46 luxury condos adjacent to the church.

As commission chairman William King explained during a lengthy public hearing, the board now will regard the property as already holding landmark status during the study period, which by law can last up to a year.

Despite suggestions from Oaktree representatives that the move could scuttle the condo plan, commission members made it clear that they do not oppose development of the property, but want to maintain some leverage to ensure the protection of the 120-year-old stone church and a garden designed by a prominent Cambridge city planner nearly a century ago.

Commission members decided to continue the hearing until their next meeting January 7, when they will consider the developer’s request for a “certificate of appropriateness,” needed to tear down the deteriorating church parish hall, which would be replaced as a first-floor unit of the new four-story complex.

City approval for the condo plan is moving along two tracks, with the Cambridge Planning Board last month delaying until its meeting December 15 a decision on a special permit Oaktree needs to move the project forward.

The planning board said it wanted more details about aspects of the proposal, as well as to wait for the historical commission to decide on a petition for the landmark study brought by residents, including neighbors and abutters of the church.

While there is a general expectation that the planning board will sign off on the special permit, the move by the historical commission could delay the project for months or, as the developer warned, short-circuit it altogether.

As proposed, the condo complex would be built in an “L” shape adjacent to the church, partly on land owned by Oaktree that formerly was the site of the Cambridge Car Wash at 2013 Mass Ave. and partly on church property, including where the current parish hall sits.

As part of its arrangement with Oaktree, the church would gain, in addition to a new parish hall, a small chapel, the renovation of its Knights Garden and a $3 million endowment, which rector Holly Antolini said was “desperately needed” for maintenance of the Richardsonian-style stone sanctuary.

But the project has sparked the strong opposition of some residents, including abutters, who say it would “overwhelm” the surrounding neighborhood of mostly two- and three-story Victorian houses and with its modern design, clash with the predominantly 19th Century architectural streetscape.

Landmarking Divides Church and Neighbors; Commission Wants Retained Oversight

Also controversial is the plan promoted by the city’s traffic department for cars from the complex’s 64-space underground parking garage to enter and exit via a ramp on two-blocks long Beech Street, which the Porter Square Neighbors Association has noted is “adamantly opposed” by many who live near or use the heavily-traveled road.

Following the commission’s vote, some church members reacted bitterly, saying the landmarking study was an unnecessary roadblock instigated by the project’s opponents. “This was set up as an obstruction and it just might work,” said senior church warden Karen Meredith. “It breaks my heart.”

Arthur Klipfel III, a founding partner of Oaktree, which has built a number of residential complexes in Cambridge, said the firm might revert to its original plan to develop only the property it owns on the former car wash site, where it could put up about 20 condo units without needing a special permit or historical review.

Klipfel told the commission that Oaktree, which has owned the car wash property since the summer of 2008, has overseas investors who cannot wait indefinitely for the combined project to get started.

The sole “no” vote for the landmark study was cast by commission member Frank Shirley, who called the plans for the condo complex “nearly masterful.” He said the “L-shaped proposal has the sense of being a cloister” in a European style and concluded that “landmarking isn’t necessarily in the best interests of the (church) building that we are so interested in preserving.”

But Charles Sullivan, the commission’s executive director, said “I do think the landmark process is warranted,” noting that if members failed to act, they would be ceding oversight of the property to the state historical commission, which is considering its own landmark designation.

Chairman King said that while “it’s a project that I hope gets advanced,” nonetheless, “I do think (the commission’s) leverage is important.”

To see previous articles about the condo project and related issues, go to: www.cctvcambridge.org/condoOK_delayed; www.cctvcambridge.org/node/28562; www.cctvcambridge.org/node/28575; and www.cctvcambridge.org/node/29027.

To see a summary of the plans by Oaktree Development in pdf form, go to: www.oakdev.com/_uploads/projects/St.JamesRedevelopment.pdf.