Planning board grants Mountain Village Charter School extensions for compliance and development timelines

The Plymouth Planning Board unanimously approved extension requests from Mountain Village Charter School at its Jan. 16 meeting, granting additional time for the school to address site-plan conditions and to begin active construction.

The school—s trustee chairman, Delaney Carrier, told the board the group needs more time to proceed because fundraising has not yet closed the gap on the project budget and the architect is still revising plans. The school requested a one-year extension for the deadlines tied to initial approvals and a short continuance of the compliance hearing to allow more time for design revisions and fundraising.

Board members discussed that a pending town zoning amendment could change the underlying zoning of the parcel, but they also said the proposal is a reasonable fit for the existing rules. The board appointed an alternate member to sit for the item so the hearing would have a full quorum, opened a public hearing (no public commenters were present to speak) and then voted to grant the requested extensions. The board approved a three- to four-month continuance of the compliance hearing (the applicant had requested three months in its letter; the board amended that to four months to the May meeting), and it granted one additional year for the timeline to meet site-plan conditions and one additional year for the timeline to begin active and substantial development.

The vote includes a requirement that the applicant continue to work with the planning staff and the town attorney and return to the board at the continued compliance hearing to report progress.

Action details: the board made a single combined motion to grant the three requests (compliance hearing continuance and the two timeline extensions); the motion was seconded and carried. The board did not record roll-call vote counts in the transcript; the action was announced as approved at the meeting.