Boston Globe: Concerns linger over planned Mormon chapel

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hopes to begin building a new house of worship in Brookline as soon as this summer to ease the strain of growing membership at the area’s Mormon meetinghouses.

But some neighbors say the chapel, designed for two congregations, would overwhelm the 1.25-acre lot along Route 9 near Brookline Reservoir Park.

"It’s like me trying to get into a men’s small shirt," said Gerry Oster, who lives next door in the Fisher Hill Estates. "It basically looks like a meetinghouse on steroids on that parcel."

The church will need a special permit from Brookline’s Zoning Board of Appeals, in part because the meetinghouse proposed for 603 Boylston St. is larger than local zoning laws allow. The building would be 33 feet tall with a 72-foot steeple, and would have underground parking for 155 vehicles and an entrance off Route 9.

The proposal will be reviewed by the Planning Board today and is scheduled to be taken up by the zoning panel on March 25.