NORTHAMPTON — It’s not every day a city finds itself facing not one, but two prospective multi-story apartment buildings to be built on the site of former churches.

On Thursday, the Planning Board voted unanimously to approve a special permit to build a five-story, 71-unit apartment building on the site of the former St. Mary’s Catholic Church along Elm and State streets in the city’s downtown near Smith College. Following that, the board opened another public hearing on whether to grant another permit for a four-story, 54-unit building on the parking lot across from the former St. John Cantius Church, on the corner of Phillips Place and Hawley Street.

Such developments certainly don’t come without courting some public controversy. For St. Mary’s, residential concern involves what the developer, Sunwood Builders of Amherst, intends to do with the church building itself. The church closed in 2010, but its large size and Gothic Revival architecture makes it a signature of the city’s skyline.

Also a challenge for Sunwood is the property’s location within the Elm Street Historic District. That means the buildings must follow a strict set of standards in order to match the overall character of the district, which also includes Smith College.

Historic building standards and some initial skepticism from the board during its February hearing led the building’s designer, Kuhn Riddle Architects, to make several alterations to the initial renderings. Changes included adding a brick exterior to one of the building’s three segments, planting trees along State Street and adjustments to the windows that “blend to the historic character” of the neighborhood, according to an update submitted by Kuhn Riddle in March.

Those changes were enough to sway the Planning Board, currently with six members, which voted unanimously on Thursday to grant the special permit to Sunwood. The Historical Commission also granted Sunwood a certificate of appropriateness on March 31, clearing the way for Sunwood to obtain a building permit to begin construction.

“I think the changes that we’ve seen here tonight really do make a difference in terms of the streetscape and cohesion with different elements of downtown,” board member Janna White said Thursday.

White also noted that Sunwood was not obligated to disclose what it intended to do with the church building. Sunwood has stated that the church’s former rectory will be used as an inn.

“There is no requirement that there needs to be plans for what is happening on the rest of this site in order to approve this part of the project,” White said. “The applicant can, if they wish, give us a a sense of what their plans are, but that will not influence our decision here tonight.”

With regards to the former St. John Cantius Church, it will be used as a leasing office for the new apartment complex built across the street by the O’Connell Development Group of Holyoke. The group acquired the church and the adjacent lot in 2020, originally planning to convert it into a restaurant before changing its focus to housing.

“There’s a need for housing all across the state,” said Sarah Stine, the president of O’Connell Development Group, at the Thursday meeting. “The proposed units vary in size from 425 square-foot studios to 1,500 foot two-bedroom, two-bath units. The intent is to provide multi-generational housing for a variety of residents at different price points.”

Many nearby residents, however, have raised concerns regarding the project, expressing skepticism over whether the street will be able to accommodate the additional parking the new complex is bound to bring, the blocking out of sunlight for nearby properties and the building’s size compared to other houses in the neighborhood, many of which were built in the 1800s. Several residents aired those concerns during the public comment period at Thursday’s meeting.

“From all the previous presentations, it is very obvious this structure has no place in our neighborhood,” said Chris Flynn, a resident of Phillips Place. “On every level, this is wrong for us, the residents. It seems the taxpayers are taking a backseat to financial interest.”

Colin Hoffmeister, who said he’s lived on Phillips Place since 1993, said he felt the new complex would be “absolutely devastating” for his personal privacy.

“I will be faced with 44 windows,” Hoffmeister said. “They’ll be looking directly into my property, over my property.”

Stine also took time to respond to some of the criticisms expressed by residents during the meeting. She said O’Connell would support limiting parking to street residents only to address concerns about a possible shortage.

“We would also like to work with the city to clarify the parking and no parking areas on the south end of Phillips Place,” Stine said. “We know Phillips Place is a narrow street.”

Stine also said that most residents of the complex were projected to be young professionals in their 20s and 30s as well as seniors looking to downsize but stay in Northampton.

Planning Board member George Kohout said he understood the concerns of residents, but that he also understood the need for more housing in the city.

“There are a lot of different pressures on the city,” Kohout said. “One of them is to preserve the integrity and the architectural warmth of a neighborhood, but the other is also to provide housing for folks who live here and folks who may come here in the future.”

The board voted to continue the hearing for the Phillips Place project. The next scheduled hearing date is in late May.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.