Saint Anselm College site plan for new track complex paused after hours of debate over lighting, PFAS and noise

Saint Anselm College asked the Bedford Planning Board to approve a site plan for a new track and field complex located on Runlet Hill Road (Bedford) and Saint Anselm's Drive (Goffstown). Attorney Ari Pollock, representing the Order of Saint Benedict and the college, presented revised materials and asked the board to accept the application as complete and consider conditions staff had recommended. "We feel that the vast majority of them are quite workable in their current form," Pollock said.

The project proposes a synthetic sports field surrounded by an NCAA‑compliant track, throwing event areas, bleachers, a press box and a roughly 7,000‑square‑foot support building on a roughly 23‑acre parcel. Project engineer Nick Olin (TF Moran) described subsurface stormwater storage beneath the turf, a bioretention area to treat runoff and a reconstructed forebay to repair a previously eroded drainage channel. He said the design meets state alteration‑of‑terrain requirements and that many utilities would be provided through Goffstown, subject to an intermunicipal sewer agreement.

Why it matters: the proposal sits on the municipal boundary and raised technical and neighborhood concerns about sports‑field lighting height and glare, potential PFAS (per‑ and polyfluoroalkyl substances) exposure from artificial turf materials, sound from public‑address systems and whether stormwater infrastructure…