For years, Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum has opposed the redevelopment of the Franciscan Monastery of St. Clare, an abutting property eyed for a contentious housing development.

The Poor Clare Nuns of Boston, who lived in the monastery until 2024, decided to sell the property when the building grew too expensive and their order grew too small to support it. But Arboretum Director William “Ned” Friedman declined offers to purchase the site, and has consistently opposed plans to redevelop it.

On April 13, the Poor Clares wrote a letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76, asking him to intervene, according to a copy reviewed by The Crimson.

“For nearly two years, Dr. Friedman has used his institutional position to delay the redevelopment of our former home at 920 Centre Street in Jamaica Plain. This unreasonable opposition has created a crisis for our community and, to our great sorrow, reflects a troubling pattern,” Sister Mary Veronica McGuff wrote.

A little more than a week later, Garber responded that the University was taking the nun’s concerns “seriously” and had forwarded their letter to the “appropriate staff,” who he said would reach out if more information was needed.

As of Thursday, the nuns said they had not been contacted by anyone from the University. They also alleged that their proposal is one of several nearby housing projects that have faced similar resistance from Friedman and the Arboretum.

‘Selective Stewardship’

The city of Boston owns the Arboretum, which runs along the wall of the nuns’ property, and allows Harvard to operate it under a 1,000 year lease. After Harvard declined to pursue the monastery property, the nuns turned to developer John Holland, who filed plans in 2023 to build 123 units of housing on the site.

The nuns initially sought to demolish the historic monastery, but after substantial community pushback, they agreed to preserve the facade. Through several redesigns, the nuns agreed to scale back parts of the proposal — reducing the project height by one story, pulling the building further back from the rear wall, and adding trees to obscure the structure.

Despite making “every effort” to fit Friedman’s demands, the nuns wrote in the letter to Garber that “none of these substantive measures satisfied him.”

While the nuns waited for months to meet with Boston Chief of Planning Kairos Shen, Friedman maintained consistent communication with Shen about his opposition to their project.

The nuns wrote that the “obstruction is not limited” to the monastery — alleging the Arboretum has posed similar resistance to nearby projects at 3841 Washington St. and 18-22 Arboretum Rd.

Benjamin Bruno — the president of neighborhood group Walk Up Roslindale — sat on the resident advisory group for the 3841 Washington St. project, and the group submitted letters in support of both developments.

Bruno lives near the Arboretum Road project, and said that the plot has long been a “dilapidated” industrial area. With the exception of the Arboretum, the project had not received much resistance from residents and abutters, he said.

“We thought it was a go. Basically, there was a lot of positivity even on the part of the public in those meetings,” Bruno said.

But a Harvard spokesperson wrote that the building would have harmed the Arboretum, arguing that the development would have “significantly impacted the public experience at a major Arboretum entrance.”

After almost three years of silence from the BPDA, the owner of the plot felt that they could not continue waiting and the project fell through, according to Bruno.

“I heard that it was falling through in January or February, and it just felt like such a loss. When you take 420 some units at the, you know, 17 or 20 percent inclusionary rate, you’re talking about a lot of housing — you’re talking about a lot of affordable housing,” Bruno said.

The project, filed in September, is still currently awaiting approval from the Boston Planning Department.

In a public comment written about the project — a proposed seven-story mixed-use development — Arboretum Chief of Staff Todd Washburn advised the city to proceed cautiously, describing it as a “precedent-setting development.”

“We know that there will be future pressure to develop sites like along the section of Washington Street adjacent to the Arboretum,” he said, adding that it was important to proceed in a way that “respects the Arboretum’s character.”

In a statement to the Crimson, the project’s developer Joseph G. Vozzella wrote that he understood the Arboretum’s concerns and has found it generally “willing to engage constructively with developers who approach them in good faith.”

In a statement, a Harvard spokesperson wrote that, while the Arboretum had concerns about the project at 3841 Washington St. project, it “ultimately did not oppose the project.”

But when a housing development at 1200 Centre St. came through the pipeline, the Arboretum raised few objections. The nuns alleged that Friedman showed the development more favorable treatment because it was owned by Hebrew Senior Life, a senior care organization affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

“While he claims these projects pose ‘development pressures,’ the Arboretum remained silent about the 1200 Centre St. project — a Harvard-affiliated development with documented impacts on shadow and viewshed,” McGuff wrote.

“This selective stewardship suggests that Dr. Friedman is prioritizing personal and institutional self-interest over the city’s dire housing needs,” she added.

In a statement a Harvard spokesperson said that the Arboretum had come to the conclusion that issues with the project’s viewshed and shade — which had been raised as issues with the other three projects — “could be tolerated.”

Friedman and the Arboretum declined multiple requests for an interview for this story.

‘Exerting Undue Power’

Nate Stell — a member of the Longfellow Area Neighborhood Association, another Roslindale resident group — said that he became aware of the Poor Clare’s proposal, when Friedman approached the group with his concerns and urged their group to publicly oppose the project.

LANA’s board of directors rejected Friedman’s offer, refusing to oppose the project after analyzing the proposed viewsheds and shadow studies.

Stell argued that the lack of consistent policies for projects around the Arboretum have forced residents to deal with important housing developments on a slow, case-by-case basis.

“Having to advocate for or resist individual projects that exist around the perimeter is just, it just feels like we’re playing whack a mole, both of us,” he said.

All large developments in Boston are governed by Article 80 — a process that requires the BPDA to review the impact of large developments and vote to approve them. 920 Centre St. also falls under a conservation protection subdistrict which aims to protect areas close to important natural environments.

Frank O’Brien, a Roslindale resident, said that he supports the Arboretum in its opposition to 920 Centre St. He alleged that the nuns and John Holland are unfairly circumventing the conservation zoning law which is the product of the city’s public zoning process.

“It’s like saying, ‘I’m in a hurry, so I gotta go 50 miles an hour,’ even though the speed limit is 25. It’s like, ‘Okay, we get it. We need to get someplace. But the rules are the rules,’” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said that the Poor Clares should aim to engage with the zoning process rather than seeking an exception to the conservation protection subdistrict. But Holland argued that seeking variances for projects is a part of doing business in Boston.

“Everything in Boston is built by some variance or some relief. Basically, there’s very, very little — besides interior models — that would not require some sort of zoning relief within the city,” Holland said.

Holland also questioned the validity of the Arboretum’s concerns with the development, pointing to studies that he commissioned that found the shadows cast by the design would not meaningfully harm the Arboretum’s trees. Holland said that the process addressed all “objective” concerns of the Arboretum leaving only “subjective” concerns about the view of the new building from inside the Arboretum.

In a statement, a Harvard spokesperson reiterated the Arboretum’s concerns about the “shadows and hydrology” of the potential building and referred to the Conservation Subdistrict designation for the property. The spokesperson also highlighted the importance of the visual impact of the building.

“The property sits on a hill overlooking the Arboretum’s main entrance — the most open, expansive, and visited view corridors — and new construction will affect public viewsheds at this entrance,” the spokesperson wrote.

Holland criticized the Arboretum’s resistance to developments across Jamaica Plain for preventing the development of much needed housing, both market-rate and affordable.

“We’re in a situation right now where Boston Planning literally can’t do its job because of an institution exerting undue power over a process,” Holland said.

In their letter to Garber, the Poor Clare nuns wrote that until their development is approved, they will not be able to sell the property to fund much needed renovations to their new monastery. The Poor Clares hope to expand their current home to welcome more nuns from around the country.

“We are hopeful that Harvard will choose to be a better neighbor to our community and to the people of Boston.” McGuff wrote.

—Staff writer Jack B. Reardon can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @JackBReardon.