Valley News – Arts-focused high school planned for downtown Lebanon gets Planning Board approval

LEBANON — A new personal arts significant faculty slated for downtown Lebanon obtained acceptance for a permit it desires to occupy a area on the pedestrian shopping mall, as effectively as a heat welcome from neighbors at a Arranging Board assembly this 7 days.

The Lebanon Arranging Board’s unanimous acceptance of a conditional use permit for the New England Faculty of the Arts on Monday evening paves the way for the college to use 5,000 square ft of house at 9 Hanover St., which is owned by the Hanover-dependent HSD Inc., for its operations. It is slated to open in the drop of 2023.

Assistant Mayor Clifton Down below, who manages the neighboring building at 1 Court docket St., welcomed Etna inhabitants Jennifer and Carl Chambers, who will be top the new university, to Lebanon, in accordance to a recording of the meeting. Under mentioned that the university will be the fifth instructional establishment on the city’s pedestrian mall.

“I imagine this is a good use,” Beneath mentioned. It is “highly suitable with the abutting takes advantage of.”

The building at 9 Hanover St. presently is property to the Women’s Wellness Resource Centre on the first flooring. It sits involving structures that house River Valley Community College or university and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Dartmouth, and not much from Ledyard Charter College and the Lebanon Ballet Faculty. The room the Chambers approach to use formerly served as places of work for West Central Behavioral Health.

Monthly bill Dunn, chairman of the Lebanon Financial Growth Fee who also sits on the Arts & Society Fee, explained the site as an “ideal space” for the new school.

“It’s just heading to make Lebanon the hub of the arts in all types,” Dunn explained in the recording.

Organizing Board customers ended up likewise complimentary of the new endeavor, but they did have some inquiries.

Thomas Jasinski, a board alternate, requested the Chambers how they prepared to handle parking, which he said “is frequently tough in downtown.”

Carl Chambers, who is now principal at Mount Prospect Academy in Pike, N.H., stated the new college options to motivate its 50-100 college students to use Progress Transit and carpool. In accordance with a request from the city’s Arranging Office, Chambers reported they prepare to put in a bicycle rack possibly on the pedestrian mall or near the tunnel underneath.

Jennifer Chambers, who is Hanover Higher School’s choral director and music coordinator, encouraged city officials to let them know if targeted visitors gets to be a dilemma.

“We can modify what we’re undertaking,” she mentioned. “We do not want to be a menace.”

Some other board users questioned how the new school would be funded. Board member Kathie Romano requested whether or not the personal faculty would be having resources away from general public educational institutions. Carl Chambers mentioned “not except they have college alternative.”

Board member Laurel Stavis asked whether the Chambers prepare to use vouchers from New Hampshire Schooling Independence Accounts to fund the college. The vouchers, which have been made previous summer time, enable qualifying family members to accessibility a “savings account” of point out education funding that can place about $5,000 towards private college tuition, house education or school charges.

Carl Chambers said they have been “looking a lot more at scholarships” to fund the faculty. “We want to open up up the college to all college students in the Higher Valley,” he claimed.

The conditional use allow is important mainly because a secondary instruction facility is not an permitted use within just the Lebanon downtown district. The Preparing Board can approve works by using exterior all those that are permitted as extensive as they contribute to the vibrancy of downtown, persuade the presence of the general public and aren’t in conflict with abutting works by using, according to the staff members memorandum bundled in the Setting up Board’s packet for its Monday meeting.

Jennifer Chambers claimed the school will need added permits from the New Hampshire Office of Instruction and the Lebanon Fire Office before it can open up.

“I believe what is so fascinating (is) Lebanon appears to be hungry for having a vibrant arts scene,” she mentioned.

Nora Doyle-Burr can be arrived at at [email protected] or 603-727-3213.