Seems like everything’s being redeveloped in Wellesley

The role of Wellesley’s Planning Board “is to make short and long term decisions related to land use in the Town of Wellesley.” The Planning Department and its board are always busy, but it sounds as though things could pick up even more in the months to come.

Those tuning in for the June 6 Planning Board meeting might have wanted to catch the latest on the large house review of a property near the Brook Path (case continued to a future meeting) or get up to speed on Beacon Capital Partners’ plans to convert 93 Worcester St. into a bio lab facility (along with Park 9 (Sun Life) property across Rte. 9.

But it was those who stuck around until the end of the 3-hour-plus meeting who got to hear Planning Board Chair Jim Roberti’s rapid-fire update on other properties in town that could be up for redevelopment. After asking Planning Director Don McCauley if he had anything to mention as part of the director’s report, and being told “Nothing more to add,” Roberti said “I don’t think I have anything either…there’s one thing though, yes…”

At which point he shared the following:

• The Sisters of Charity are interested in potentially developing their property on Oakland Street near Centennial Reservation. The property currently includes the Elizabeth Seton Residence nursing home and rehabilitation facility and Marillac Residence residential care community. Roberti said there had been previous interest in doing so, but that the outfit ran into wetlands issues. McCauley described this as being in a single residence zone, but with a religious exemption for the Sisters’ support of retired nuns.

  According to Sister Roberta Kerins, Chairperson of the Elizabeth Seton Residence and Marillac Residence Board of Directors:

  The Sisters of Charity themselves are aging and looking towards the future.  The hope is to continue providing the same exceptional senior care on the campus that the 5-star Elizabeth Seton Residence Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility and Marillac Residence residential care home have provided to the community for the past 41 years.

• A bunch of Haynes Management properties could be going on the market. “Ten people have called me,” Roberti said, adding that this could happen over a matter of years. “That could have a fundamental change and effect on the time, that’s definitely something we’re going to be looking at planning wise.”

We did the rounds with the aforementioned parties, and will update this post if we hear back from any of them with more details.

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