To the editor:

Barrington purchased the Carmelite Monastery in June 2022 with a resolution “to acquire and preserve the Carmelite monastery.” 4Ward Planning consulting firm was then hired for 35,000 (paid to date) to work with the town to provide analysis and design plans. There would be community involvement and surveys to get the pulse of the people of Barrington.  

Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  

At the first “visioning meeting” we heard that the site “could be anything we could imagine.” Wonderful ideas were put forth in surveys. We decided as a group (Watson Ave Ad-Hoc Committee) that we should provide affordable senior housing in the monastery which was a natural progression from the nuns who had lived there.  Other visions were to preserve some land for open space and potentially walking trails for the community especially for the senior residents, maintain low-density, keep traffic to a minimum, maintain the character of the neighborhood (a goal of the comprehensive plan).  

This vision was agreed to by the committee – we were off to a great start!  

At the first design meeting, 4Ward Planning announced the Monastery could indeed be preserved and renovated beautifully. We entered the design process and asked repeatedly for financial analysis and were told repeatedly “this will come at the end.” 

Really? We pushed forward.  

The consultants worked on their designs and came back with plans that didn’t look anything like what was “visioned.” They told us how this type of plan worked beautifully in other communities, but after some research we found they were planned communities where there were previously none. We saw warning signs and a high-density development that would not meet our agreed upon vision. 

There was a community meeting with a post-it vote where the vision we had was the top choice.  The community rejoiced but all was not as it seemed. We attended the presentation of the designs to the town council and incredibly the plan with the top vote was not presented, rather a much higher density.  

“Why?” we asked. “The community vote was not an official vote” we were told.  

Again, the community was ignored and we entered the final phase of financial analysis of the plans only to be told in the end that every one of the plans created were “NOT financially viable.” Who plans an entire development and does not look at financial viability until the end? Barrington.  

Where are we now? A new even higher density plan has been created to make the site financially viable for a developer. Does 53 units on 4.8 acres sound like the vision we started with? Does this sound right for Barrington?  

There are other creative ideas that could make this property financially viable. The town doesn't care, they want this put to bed regardless of what it means for the community. The Planning Board intends to modify the comprehensive plan to push this plan through. 

Why should they be allowed to modify the plan that is meant to protect the character of Barrington neighborhoods from exactly this type of development? 

Please attend the Planning Board meetings on March 28 and April 26. Your neighborhood could be next. 

Mary Grenier

Barrington