Lincoln Academy’s plan to build a 54-student dormitory already faces a zoning appeal from one neighbor, attorney Jonathan Hull, and vocal opposition from several others.
“This is going to totally, unalterably change the entire character of Academy Hill,” Hull said at a public hearing before the Newcastle Planning Board Aug. 29.
The neighbors expressed a variety of concerns, but focused on how the building and the influx of residents would impact the neighborhood.
The dormitory would house 54 students and six sets of “dorm parents” and their children. The existing dormitory at Hall House has a capacity of 24 students with apartments for two sets of dorm parents and children.
The dormitories will likely add more than 100 residents to the neighborhood, neighbor Martha Frink said. The result is “a very big change to this neighborhood, so you can’t be surprised neighbors are curious about it and very upset about it,” she said.
Paul Mathews and his family live “directly across the street” from the project. “The lighting, the construction, the noise is all clearly going to be a major change for us,” Mathews said.
“We chose to live where we live,” he said. “We did not choose to live directly across the street from a … multifamily dwelling house” with 60 to 75 inhabitants.
Other community members objected to what they said was a lack of transparency regarding the project.
“The dorm, which is an enormous, landscape-changing, institution-changing, town-changing project – I had never heard about it until July,” Jenny Mayher said.
Mayher said she tries to keep informed about the school and attended the annual meeting of the Lincoln Academy Board of Trustees this summer, where the board did not mention the project.
“I feel shocked by the scale of this project, and I wish there had been more discussion,” Mayher said. “It feels like there was something being hidden … when things are being done in secret, sometimes you think there is something wrong, even if there isn’t.”
The board acknowledged it was evaluating the possibility of one or two stand-alone residence halls in December 2011 and announced plans to build a dormitory for 20 to 40 students in February 2013, according to The Lincoln County News archives.
The school never announced the change in plans in favor of the 54-student dormitory. Instead, the plans only became public when school contractors began the process of gathering the necessary permits for the work.
Lincoln Academy Trustee Karen Moran said the board does not publicize talks about a project until it makes a final decision.
“There has been no attempt to hide or be secretive in any way,” Moran said. “It has been a very long and a very thorough and thoughtful process.”
The boarding program “really enhances the education for all the students in our community and (will) keep Lincoln Academy alive and vibrant” in the face of “dire” predictions about declining enrollment, Moran said.
Lincoln Academy charges $35,000 in tuition and fees per boarding student, according to Boarding School Review. The school receives about $9000 to $10,000 for local students, a rate set by the state.
Newcastle resident Carole Brinkler, a Lincoln Academy employee and host mother of a student from China since 2011, defended the project.
The program “brings the world” to local students who might never leave the state during high school, Brinkler said. It “brings a lot of good to our town,” helps the school financially, and the students “love it here,” she said.
“I just hope while we’re all thinking about what it’s going to do to our neighborhood … we can see some of the positives this project is going to bring,” Brinkler said.
The neighbors, particularly Frink, Hull and Mathews, expressed concern about specifics of the project, including construction issues and use of the building outside the school year.
The construction of the dormitory and the nearby applied technology and engineering center will occupy the existing faculty parking lot. The faculty will park in the student parking lot, Lincoln Academy Head of School David Sturdevant said.
The school will still allow seniors and “probably some juniors” to park in the student parking lot, although other students might not be able to park at the school, Sturdevant said. Many schools limit student parking or do not allow it at all, he said.
The school might rent dormitory space in the summer, Sturdevant said. His previous school, Fryeburg Academy, would rent a dormitory to a chamber music festival for a few weeks each summer.
Wright-Ryan Construction Inc. Director of Pre-construction Services Cordelia Pitman said the construction timeline will be from around Oct. 1 to mid-July or early August 2014.
Wright-Ryan has experience with projects on active campuses, Pitman said. “We’re very flexible,” she said. “We work in very tight urban conditions; we work in communities a lot.”
Following the hearing, the planning board began to consider whether to approve the project.
The board, after initial uncertainty about how to classify the project, unanimously voted to consider it as a commercial building instead of a residential building, as it did with the Hall House.
The board also unanimously voted to send Lincoln Academy to the Newcastle Board of Appeals to request a variance regarding the height of the structure.
The building would stand about 58 feet high from the rear side, but only about 35 feet would be visible from the road because it would be built into a hill.
The planning board will continue to consider the project Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Newcastle fire station community meeting room.
The board of appeals will consider the appeal by Jonathan Hull and the variance request Monday, Sept. 23 at 6 p.m. at the same place.
The appeal documents for Hull’s appeal were not available at press time. According to a public notice in this edition, the appeal involves the design review process. The school has already obtained a design review certificate for the project.