TRURO — Two big pieces of news came from Fred Gaechter, chair of the Truro Conservation Trust, at last weekend’s meeting at the Chapel on the Pond, where a growing Jamaican congregation has been worshipping since 2017. First, Gaechter announced that the trust’s board had voted unanimously to try to acquire the property, which is likely to be listed for sale on April 1.

“But the real news today,” Gaechter told the 25 people who gathered on Feb. 24, “is that a donor has stepped up and committed to providing initially $500,000 toward the purchase of the church.” Sustained cheers and applause delayed the further news: the unnamed donor also pledged to match other donations up to an additional $500,000.

If successful, the trust’s campaign could thus raise $1.5 million, which property owner Bob Valleau has suggested may be close to the asking price.

Gaechter’s further announcement was met with more boisterous applause.

There are conditions for the donation: “The money has to go through the conservation trust, and the trust will be the owner of the property,” Gaechter said. A long-term lease with Emmanuel Faith Ministry, Pastor David Brown’s newly established nonprofit, would ask $1 per year in rent, with the stipulation that the parish pay all maintenance, utility, and operating costs.

The trust is almost four years into a similar agreement with the Truro Center for the Arts, Gaechter later told the Independent. In June 2020, the trust purchased 42 Corn Hill Road at a price below market rate because the former owners were conservation-minded, he said. The trust has been leasing it for $1 per year to Castle Hill, which handles maintenance and upkeep. “Castle Hill has lived up to everything they committed to,” Gaechter said. “It’s working very well.”

The trust is already receiving donations for the chapel’s purchase. A GoFundMe campaign by Kate Wallace Rogers with a goal of raising $150,000 by April 1 was posted on Sunday night. It’s called “Pond Village Chapel Campaign” after organizers agreed to let go of the name “Chapel on the Pond,” which was bestowed by current owners Bob and Kathy Valleau.

As of Tuesday evening, the campaign had raised nearly $10,000.

Keeping Hope in Check

After Saturday’s meeting, Pastor Brown told the Independent he felt “somewhat elated.” But buying the chapel is far from a done deal.\

In a text to Wallace Rogers, Bob Valleau had said, “It is certainly not final, but we believe the listing price will be over $1.5 million.”

“This space is so phenomenal that there could be what we call an emotional buy, where someone could walk in here and their lungs open up, and they don’t want to leave,” said Chris Nagle, a real estate broker, at Saturday’s meeting. “We are in a competitive process. I don’t mean to sound alarming about that.”

The chapel is in a district zoned residential. That means special approval would not be required for a buyer to build a single-family home there.

But the 17 Pond Road site comprises 0.23 acres — well below Truro’s minimum building lot size, which is 0.775 acres. Altering or expanding a nonconforming structure would require a special permit from the zoning board of appeals.

Town Planner Barbara Carboni wouldn’t speculate on the odds of such a permit being granted. “It’s really a case-by-case basis,” she said. The question before the ZBA would be whether the applicant’s plans were “substantially more detrimental” than the structure that exists there now, she said.

Buddy Perkel, a former chair of the Truro ZBA, told the Independent he thought such a permit was likely to be granted. The purpose of a special permit hearing, Perkel said, “is to see whether the granting of the permit would be reasonably consistent with what’s happening in the neighborhood. So, if it’s going to become a residence in a residential neighborhood, that would be pretty consistent.”

Special permits are “not to be used to stop things but to be facilitating,” Perkel added.

“The idea is that if your lot and structure aren’t conforming, you shouldn’t be able to build just as of right,” said Carboni. “There should be some review process.” The small lot size “is why it’s before the ZBA, but it’s not dispositive.”

Historical Significance

Nagle, the real estate agent who counseled realism along with hope, said he could not estimate the property’s value. “The architecture and history have a value that we can’t quite measure,” he told the Independent.

Even if zoning does not impede a potential buyer’s plans to build, the chapel’s history might.

According to Mass. Historical Commission documents provided by Chuck Steinman, vice chair of the Truro Historical Commission, the Colonial Revival-style chapel was deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

Built in 1915 as a Catholic church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the chapel is significant because of its architecture and social history: many of its congregants were of Portuguese descent.

The building is also eligible as a contributing resource in a potential North Truro Historic District, according to the historical commission.

According to Carboni, when the town receives a building permit application that entails demolition of a possibly historic structure, Building Commissioner Rich Stevens refers it to the chair and vice chair of the town’s historical commission for review.

Under the town’s Preserving Historic Properties bylaw, if the commission finds a building to be “preferably preserved,” it can impose a demolition delay of up to one year, “during which time the owner/applicant can work with the historical commission to explore alternatives to demolition.” If a hearing were triggered, Steinman said, imposing such a delay would be “likely.”

According to Steinman, that provision “has been successful in a couple of cases in preserving historic buildings.”

Because of the chapel’s eligibility for inclusion on the National Register, it also may be referred to the Cape Cod Commission for Development of Regional Impact (DRI) review, which is designed partly to protect historic properties and to screen proposals that “are presumed to have development effects beyond their local communities.”

DRI review is mandatory only for properties that are listed on the National Register, but a discretionary referral process exists for properties like 17 Pond Road that have been deemed eligible.

According to documents from August 1989, in addition to its social and historical significance, the chapel has architectural importance because of its tripartite Palladian window and overhanging eaves.

The historical protections and review processes amount to “a disincentive for someone to demolish it,” said Steinman.