Dorchester 02 reviews options for flooded Gavans site and five other district-owned properties

District staff presented an inventory of six district-owned properties to the Dorchester 02 Facilities Committee on Jan. 13 and outlined options for each, including selling for fair market value, donating to a nonprofit, demolition, or repurposing for district offices.

Staff emphasized the Gavans site as the district’s most problematic property: the parcel spans about 11.5 acres with a roughly 1,380-square-foot former school building; the site sits in a flood-prone area, is on a septic/well system and contains a leach field in the center of the parcel. Staff said remediation after a 2015 flood cost about $1 million and that the site flooded again in 2024, requiring further remediation estimated by staff at roughly another $1 million. Annual utility and maintenance costs for the building were reported as about $33,000 and $20,000 respectively.

Staff offered several courses of action for Gavans: 1) list the property for sale at fair market value and invest proceeds in a line item for future property acquisition; 2) donate the property to the adjacent Canaan United Methodist Church, which staff said had expressed interest and said it values the building for its historical role as Canaan Elementary School; or 3) demolish or otherwise dispose of the property if remediation costs and site constraints (septic/leach field and flood risk) make reuse infeasible. Staff said Christie would research statutory requirements and processes to permit a donation to a nonprofit, and that a decision was not being requested at the Jan. 13 meeting.

The staff presentation included four smaller district-owned houses: 112 Joyce Lane (about 0.75 acre, technology temporarily located there; Zestimates cited around $462,000), 801 Magnolia Street (about 0.5 acre, 1,380 sq. ft., currently used by Sodexo; Zestimate cited near $330,000), 212 Joyce Lane (about 0.5 acre, used by Child Find; Zestimate quoted under $300,000), and a roughly two-acre parcel at the Rawlings Athletic Fields/Gum Street. Staff suggested that some of these houses could be sold as single-family lots, converted back to residences, or repurposed, and that technology and other district staff could be relocated into renovated district office space (for example, Marshall O’Brien or renovated gym office space) if referendum projects proceed as planned.

Staff noted possible near-term benefits from selling surplus housing — creating seed money for future land purchases tied to a long-range facilities plan — and reiterated that no final decision had been made. Committee members asked questions about valuation, flood mitigation work in the area that might affect value, and whether the adjacent church still wanted the Gavans property after the recent flood. Staff said they would provide more concrete appraisals and legal research on the donation option, and return with additional analysis.

No formal vote or final disposition decision was taken at the meeting; staff said this was an initial presentation and asked the committee for direction on next steps and further study.