Selectmen To Appraise St. James Church Land

 The Board of Selectmen last night voted to spend $25,000 to professionally appraise the St. James the Great Church site and to find out whether turning it into a town-owned recreation area would be feasible.

The funds will come from the Community Preservation Committee and were requested by the Recreation Department, which is looking at whether the 7.85-acre site would be suitable for an indoor skating rink, indoor swimming pool, soccer field and playground.

This is another step in the town's efforts to explore all options for the site before determining whether to make an offer on the property.

The site, which sits between Route 9 and Moses Pond, is one the Planning Board has taken a proactive interest in. A consulting firm, Concord Square Planning and Development, was hired in December and last month completed a study of the site that detailed potential uses and problems with the site.

It also valued the property at $3.5 million, based on single-family development.

A complete copy of the consultant's report is available to read on the town's  website, and the Planning Board has asked for input from the community.

Essentially, the consultants outlined four potential uses for the site:

- A 12-lot, single family residential subdivision.

- A 40-unit residential development which would include reuse of the church building as housing units.

- Retail/office development which would include 4 buildings and 94,000-square feet of space.

- The recreation area.

Selectman Ellen F. Gibbs, who has been working with the Planning Board and other town boards and committees exploring options for the future of the site, said a group from Concord recently outlined what it had done there to build an indoor pool and fitness facility on Concord town-owned land.

Gibbs said the group raised money to pay for the construction of the pool and now maintains the Concord facility without a penny from that town. She said that is an option Wellesley should consider if it moves forward with making an offer on the property.

The church, owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, was closed nearly six years ago. Parishioners have held a vigil at the site since, but the Archdiocese has made it clear the church will remain closed.