The project, which will house 400 students, will create additional options for on-campus apartment-style living, and provide necessary capacity to house students while a multi-year process is underway to renovate existing housing stocks to modern standards for both sustainability and student life.
The proposed project is located on the west side of Lyme Road, on the grounds of the former golf course just south of the Town Fire Department. While the focus of this project is residential, this site overall has been identified for academic development in the future.
When the project was first proposed, it was originally slated to be on the east side of Lyme Road, near Garipay Field, but due to community feedback, the project has been relocated to the west side of Lyme Road.
Over the summer, Dartmouth held five community sessions to solicit community feedback on all aspects of the project, including design, programming, sustainability and transportation. Community members voiced positive feedback on the design and appreciated the detailed plans on sustainability. Detailed feedback on transportation concerns and the intersection with nearby public spaces in Pine Park, especially as it pertains to stormwater management, have influenced the planning process.
The planning team considered a wide variety of sites to support our residential housing needs. Other locations that could be available for development now or in the future presented challenges, including displacement of important needs such as taking existing residence halls off-line before new beds are created; the need to keep existing parking lots; inadequate size; and locations better suited for academic uses. A key driver in the current location was assuring that we could build a project that was both apartment style and had enough units to support a timely renewal of the current residential buildings.
The location on the west side of Lyme Road provides us with the physical space we need for apartment-style living, offers the appropriate number of units, and creates flexibility for how and by whom the housing can be used in the future. Apartment living requires a larger footprint than is available in the center of campus. While there are smaller spaces on the campus that may have been suitable for a traditional residential project, they also have great value for other academic and campus planning needs.
The current proposal includes:
Students and faculty are our primary focus group members, and in addition to the community-wide feedback sessions, Student Affairs hosted a parallel student-specific engagement process, designed to understand the challenges and the opportunities available in apartment-style residences. The student affairs team gathered feedback from house professors and other affiliated faculty, the student Interhouse Council and summer undergraduate advisors, and a focus group of students living at the new Summit on Juniper apartment complex that opened near the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
Transportation was a key area of focus in our community sessions, and through those sessions we received feedback on topics and areas consider in our transportation study. We are in the final stages of conducting a full transportation study and expect to share it as part of the town process.
During the community sessions, we received valuable feedback on this topic, and our student sessions have provided us additional information that we are using to determine our future plans. A Dartmouth-owned and operated shuttle will provide service to this location. We have also listened to community concerns regarding safety and cyclists and pedestrians and are actively in conversation with the Town's Department of Public Works on this topic.
110 spaces. This number meets the required building and zoning codes specified for undergraduate housing.
Given the project's proximity to the Connecticut River and Pine Park, proper stormwater management is integral to the successful implementation of the project. Dartmouth's plan to manage stormwater on the site includes implementing standard stormwater management techniques through which we can successfully mitigate its impacts on peak stormwater runoff rates. Stormwater quality issues will be addressed through the proposed implementation of standard practices such as surface sand filters and deep sump catch basins. The project has incorporated an enhanced design to accommodate the 100-year storm beyond the Town of Hanover and NHDES standards.
We know how important green and open spaces are to both the Dartmouth community and our Hanover neighbors and have received valuable feedback from the community on the importance of maintaining public spaces in this area. We have worked to maximize and improve the connections to Pine Park, to area fields, and to passive recreation spaces, and will continue to partner with the Ford Sayre Ski Club and the Dartmouth community to allow Nordic skiing on the property.
This project will go through the standard Town of Hanover permitting process, which includes a review by both the Town of Hanover Planning Board and Town of Hanover Zoning Board. Additional information can be found on the Hanover Planning Board website: https://www.hanovernh.org/planning-board/events/62331