Saratoga News

Notre Dame plans to close convent and put property on the market

Zoning allows for building of homes on one-acre lots

Sisters will move to Belmont

By Sarah Lombardo

After almost 95 years tucked behind the Saratoga Village, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur have announced they plan to sell the property that houses their villa and their Montessori preschool and has served as the order's headquarters for its California province. Sister Barbara Thiella, executive administrator of the provincialate, said the order has decided to consolidate its Saratoga facilities with those in Belmont and expects that the 22.5-acre property on Bohlman Road could go on the market by sometime next spring.

Thiella said the move won't affect any of the local educational facilities in which the sisters are involved, such as Sacred Heart School in Saratoga and Notre Dame High School in San Jose, but the Montessori preschool, sponsored by the order, plans to look for a new location--hopefully somewhere in the area.

The reason for the move, Thiella said, was simply to allow the order to do more with what it has. "It's how to more efficiently be stewards of our resources," she said. The consolidation will also allow the sisters to provide better health care to its retired or aging members, she said, by housing them in one location. About one-third of the California province's membership is over age 65.

Thiella said letters regarding the order's plans were sent to nearby neighbors, many of whom said they had already heard rumors about an impending move.Some residents said they feared the sisters' move could lead to development of the property, something that Community Development Director James Walgren said could happen.

"That would pretty likely result in housing up there," he said. According to Walgren, the area is zoned for single-family residential development with lots no smaller than one acre. But the area's general-plan designation is also listed as "quasi-public," which, Walgren said, means that facilities such as a school or library could also go on the land. Walgren explained that the general-plan designation, which was adopted after the provincialate was already built, was a way for the city to recognize the facility's existence and would not prevent housing as a use for the land.

Housing was not a problem for one neighbor, who asked not to be identified. She said she wouldn't mind houses being put on the property as long as the lots were large, but said traffic on the road was already a problem. "I don't know what 20 more families would do to that," she said.

Neighbor Sue Persico said her first reaction to the news was dread. "For me what it means is construction, which would be virtually across the street," she said. But Persico said she was mostly disappointed that the preschool would have to move because she had hoped to send another child to the school, one having already graduated from it. "I was really hoping that they could keep their site," she said, "or find another nearby because I think it is a really good school."

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