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Planning board presses Brewster Academy to discourage Green Street traffic; requires signage, continues review
Summary
Wolfeboro Planning Board continued Brewster Academy’s parking-lot reconfiguration review to June 17 and required the academy to post “no through traffic” signage on its property to discourage use of Green Street; board and neighbors debated traffic concentration, speed bumps and longer-term circulation changes.
Wolfeboro Planning Board members asked Brewster Academy to take steps to discourage driving onto Green Street and continued the academy’s site-plan review to June 17, 2025, after an extended public hearing and a detailed presentation from the applicant’s design team.
The hearing focused on the school’s proposed parking reconfiguration at 80 Academy Drive, a project Brewster and its consultants say reduces impervious area and moves parking to the campus perimeter. Andy Smith of DSK Architects and Planners, presenting for Brewster Academy, said the project’s intent is to “push that vehicular traffic to the perimeter and keep it out of the center of campus,” and that the redesign does not add overall traffic to campus.
Neighbors and several planning board members, however, said the change would concentrate more traffic toward Green Street, a narrow residential approach that abutters say already handles student and event-related traffic. Resident John (last name not stated) told the board Green Street had historically been a dead-end and called the proposed pattern a “safety hazard” if it became the campus loop. Multiple board members agreed further measures were needed to reduce cut-through traffic onto the residential street.
During the hearing Brewster offered mitigation steps including limiting gym members’ ingress/egress to specified campus entrances and installing a speed bump on its property before the Green Street exit. The applicant also agreed to supply a cost estimate and financial surety for construction observation and landscaping, as the town’s typical practice requires.
Board action: The planning board voted to require Brewster Academy to install signage on its property discouraging through traffic to Green Street (motion passed; recorded in the transcript as carried by majority vote). After additional discussion the board also voted to continue the public hearing to the June 17, 2025 meeting to allow Brewster to return with a clearer, written mitigation plan. The transcript records the continuance and multiple follow-up directions to the applicant.
Why it matters: The reconfigured lot would alter how campus traffic flows near small residential streets. The board’s conditions — signage on academy property and a return date for more specific mitigation — reflect local concerns about pedestrian safety, winter-maintenance access and the cumulative impacts of campus circulation changes.
What’s next: Brewster Academy must present the requested mitigation package at the June 17 meeting. The planning board directed Brewster to consider (and residents urged) additional measures such as multiple speed bumps, a gate that could be opened by emergency vehicles, revised access on Clark Road, or a redesign that distributes trips away from Green Street; the board and public will evaluate those options on the continuation date.
