The Barrington Town Council will hold a special meeting Wednesday night, Aug. 30, to discuss the former Carmelite monastery property. 

The meeting will be held inside the presentation room at Barrington Middle School at 6:30 p.m., and will accommodate for in-person participation only. The meeting will also be live-streamed.

Barrington Town Council President Carl Kustell said the meeting will offer another opportunity for public feedback about the proposed development. 

The most recent iteration of the plan for the monastery property includes the development of about a half-dozen single family house lots and a small “pocket neighborhood” which would feature 10 to 12 housing units. The plan also includes about two acres of open space, and would require the demolition of the monastery building. 

In a message to the Barrington Times, Kustell wrote that while the meeting agenda includes an opportunity to “discuss and act,” he does not intend to make a motion.

“We intend to run through FAQs, the appraisal, and the general status,” Kustell wrote. “The Planning Board’s plan has been generally well received and I think it has a lot of merits we should discuss.”

Kustell added that the project would still need a vote at a special financial town meeting.

“The sooner we can move forward, the sooner we can stop paying carrying costs down the road,” Kustell wrote. 

Property history

The town purchased the land at 25 Watson Ave. a couple years ago — voters approved the expenditure by the narrowest of margins at a financial town meeting. 

The initial purchase and sale agreement between the town and the seller (the Diocese of Providence) was for $3.5 million, but that price dropped to $3.2 million after an inspection revealed asbestos inside the monastery building. The asbestos remediation was expected to cost between $200,000 and $400,000.

The property, which sits at 25 Watson Ave., covers about seven acres overlooking Barrington Beach and Narragansett Bay to the south, and includes the decades-old monastery building. 

The FTM vote on whether to purchase the property had required the preservation of the monastery building. There was a second vote to allow for the removal of the monastery building, but it was defeated.