Like so many others, our family moved to Barrington so our children could attend the Barrington schools, and now, with our children grown, we face the option of staying or leaving. I applaud the Town Council for showing concern for our plight as well as concern for the best possible use of the beautiful, Carmelite Monastery property, but I am not sure they have done their homework.

Barrington seniors are not a monolithic group. Many choose to stay in Barrington (two-thirds of Barrington residences have no school-age children), and many choose to move nearer their grown children, to warmer climes or to some form of elderly, congregate housing elsewhere. 

Barrington has been wrestling with this issue for more than 50 years, initially considering a tax freeze for the elderly but opting for a circuit breaker based on need. 

In the late 1980’s the town welcomed a cluster/condominium development of 2-3 bedroom homes at Lion’s Head on the Zion Bible property, but when the model homes did not sell, the project was converted to much larger, single family homes. 

The developer of Bagy Wrinkle purchased the property at Mallard Cove intending to build a similar project there, but those units also failed to sell, and the project was converted to large, single family homes. The reason most often cited for both failures was that the tax rates in Warren and Bristol made projects there much more affordable.

In the 1980’s, Tockwotton (as well as a religious-affiliated group) proposed building congregate care facilities where the elderly age in place but eventually abandoned the projects when Barrington residents strongly objected to multi-story, apartment buildings. Tockwotton ended up building its project on the East Providence waterfront, and the site for the other project became the McCulloch playing fields. 

In 1988, the Barrington Town Council appointed a committee to study elderly housing, and the committee spent a year interviewing for-profit, not-for-profit and government entities charged with developing and managing elderly housing before making three recommendations: 1. to change the zoning to permit auxiliary or in-law apartments, 2. to change the zoning to allow private developers to build for-profit elderly housing and 3. to create a Barrington Housing Authority charged with constructing and managing 100 units of elderly housing (80 market-rate units that would subsidize 20 affordable units). The Town Council passed the auxiliary apartment zone change, defeated (by a vote of 3-2) the for-profit elderly housing zone change, and decided to put the question of creating a housing authority on the ballot in Nov. 1990. The ballot question was narrowly defeated.

Two years later, however, a new Town Council reconsidered the second option and unanimously approved changing the zoning ordinance to allow for-profit elderly housing development. 

Two years later, the projects at the former Pilling Chain (affordable) and Rhode Island Lace Works (market rate) were built. Both projects got off to something of a slow start but have proved to be highly successful. 

As the Baby Boomers age, there has been renewed interest in elderly housing, but several proposals for developing the remaining Zion Bible property have faltered for lack of funding or interest. 

Before investing in elderly housing, therefore, the town would be wise to do some research into what the seniors here really want and need. 

Julia Califano

Barrington