By Gintautus Dumcius
Reporter Correspondent

The Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association this week overwhelmingly voted to approve of plans for St. William's Place, a mixed residential and commercial development that will be built on what is presently the site of the former St. William church complex on Dorchester Ave. The unanimous vote ends a long back and forth between the civic group and the developer Viet-AID that threatened to nix any housing on the site.

The vote came after officials from Viet-AID, the community development corporation that owns the lot, and consultants on the project laid out their plans, which include a 3-story building with 16 units of housing and 2 buildings with a combined total of 18 units. Commercial shops are expected on the ground floor level. The existing church buildings will be torn down to make room for the development.

The block will also include a small park that will remain privately-owned but open to the public. The lot is buffeted by Belfort Street, St. William's Street, and

Auckland Street, with the main address listed as 1048 Dorchester Avenue.

Members of the civic association said the vote was a preliminary approval, since many of the project's details still have to be ironed out.

"We're very early in the process," said Deirdre Habershaw, the association's president, adding that the project still has to go through the city's permitting process.

Hiep Chu, Viet-AID's executive director, said the organization will return to the civic association with details later in the project. The civic association's committees that had looked at the proposal before it came before the entire association Monday night noted some concerns.

Anne Riley, of the association's planning committee, said they wanted to ensure the rental units aren't over-occupied and trash storage is taken care of on-site.

The committee had also suggested reversing the project's facade from St. William's Street and Belfort Street to Dorchester Avenue and St. William's Street.