Housing for seniors likely plan for church

The Norwell Select Board has agreed to buy St. Helen’s Church on Route 53 from the Archdiocese of Boston for $9 million.

The purchase-and-sale agreement is contingent on approval from Town Meeting scheduled for January, according to Town Administrator Peter Morin.

Morin said the Select Board wants to use Community Preservation money to buy the property, which includes the church building and more than 10 acres of land. That means the site could be used only for affordable housing, open space, or recreation, he said.

Morin said the town most likely would build at least 100 units of affordable housing for seniors.

“It’s a way to meaningfully address affordable housing, and also address the needs of seniors who are being priced out of being able to remain in Norwell,” he said. “And it provides an opportunity for the town to control its (development) future.”

Building that much affordable housing would get Norwell closer to the state goal of having at least 10 percent of a community’s housing stock classified as affordable, Morin said. Reaching the goal means that a community would not have to accept Chapter 40B development projects, which include affordable units but are not governed by local development rules.

The state’s latest figures, from 2020, show that 5 percent of Norwell’s housing is classified as affordable.

The archdiocese announced in June 2022 that it would sell St. Helen’s and St. Thecla’s in Pembroke and build a new church at the site of St. Mary’s in Hanover. The three churches were united in a single parish in 2021 with one pastor serving all three church buildings. Parishioners will all worship together in the new church in Hanover that can accommodate the growing congregation, according to a spokesman for the archdiocese.