By Patrick McGroarty
News Editor

Ownership of the St. Williams Church property was set to change hands today with the Archdiocese of Boston, representing Blessed Mother Teresa Parish, transferring the deed for 1048 Dorchester Avenue to Viet-AID, the Fields Corner non-profit that plans to tear down the church building and redevelop the site.

The sale &endash; for $2 million &endash; follows a three-month due diligence process during which Viet-AID investigated the condition of the property and brought preliminary plans to neighbors, and comes days after some abutters asked the church to extend that due diligence period.

Opinions vary widely on how open the process has been thus far, and on what the preferred use for the site should be when it does change hands. There is also some confusion over how Viet-AID will engage the community in the next phase of the block's redevelopment.

To date, Viet-AID has presented two sets of plans for the site: a first concept, discussed at a meeting for abutters on January 22, and a revision based on feedback from the January meeting which was presented to the Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association's planning committee last Friday. But abutters in particular remain unsatisfied with key tenets of the plan especially, its density and the inclusion of rental housing units.

Earlier this month, two residents who live near St. Williams sent e-mails to Father Paul Soper, pastor of Blessed Mother Teresa, asking him to extend the due diligence process so that Viet-AID could vet their vision for the site over a longer period of time before a sale was finalized. Soper denied the request, saying that Viet-AID had been chosen by the parish after a long and diligent process.

The request became an issue again at the March meeting of the CSHCA because Anne Riley, who chairs the association's subcommittee on the St. Williams development, had written a letter expressing her personal view that the process should be slowed down on official association letterhead. A debate at the meeting resulted in a vote not to oppose the scheduled deed transfer, but almost no direct abutters were in attendance, and it is abutters who seem most concerned with Viet-AID's current plan.

"The [CSHCA] association is Dorchester's largest, and it covers a very broad area. It's not that St. Williams is not of their concern, but the situation isn't the same for someone who lives down by Columbia Road as it is for us," said Eric Chodkowski, whose home on Belfort Street abuts the St. Williams property. Chodkowski also wrote to Fr. Soper asking that the transfer be delayed. He was present at Viet-AID's first meeting with abutters on January 22. There, he and other abutters said they hoped the historical significance of the site would be respected, and took specific issue with the number of units proposed (then 56, now down to 36) and the presence of "working rate" rental housing along Dorchester Avenue.

At the civic association's planning committee meeting last Friday, Chodkowski and Riley were among a group of neighbors who presented a two-page list of suggestions to Viet-AID officials that they hope to see incorporated into the final design. Among the requests was that some of the materials from the demolished church be re-used, that subsidized rental housing and potentially all rental housing be eliminated, and that as much green space as possible be preserved.

Also at issue is the height of the structure that will front Dorchester Avenue. Viet-AID has proposed a four-story building, several feet higher than the zoning for that site currently allows. But most abutters say they would prefer a much lower structure, one or two stories at most.

Hiep Chu, executive director of Viet-AID, said that he hoped the final design would satisfy many of the requests while still fulfilling his organization's financial commitment and mission statement.

"We know that the site is a very emotional one, but we can't bring the church back, and people want us to preserve open space, but we are not in the business of preserving open space, even though that is a good idea," said Chu. "We want to work with people, but we can't do this project in a way that is not affordable."

Chu pointed to concessions that his design team has already made since first meeting with abutters in January, such as decreasing the housing units and commercial space while increasing parking spaces. But he said one point Viet-AID was unlikely to concede was the elimination of affordable rental housing, which is central to the group's mission and was one reason Fr. Soper chose Viet-AID to develop the site.

"I have no idea how much time we're going to need to come to some kind of consensus on this," said Chu. "Columbia-Savin Hill is an important civic association and we want to work through them, but it's most important that the neighborhood hold onto every opinion and respect one process rather than spin out a lot of different processes."

State Rep. Martin Walsh, who organized the abutters' meeting in January, said a creative and efficient process would be necessary to unite abutters and the wider community.

"It's a weird thing. You've got some residents that are happy with the process and a lot that live around there that aren't happy with the process," said Walsh. "I think the civic group is going to have to reach out to the abutters. I also think this process will have to be a little more than just the civic involvement; this is a big project."