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Planning Board approves Saint Paul School addition, conditional use permit and waivers
Summary
The Concord Planning Board on Nov. 19 approved a major site plan, conditional use permit and architectural design review for a 17,600 sq ft addition at Saint Paul School that relocates squash courts, authorizes limited wetland‑buffer disturbance and grants multiple waivers, with conditions and precedent items attached.
The Concord Planning Board voted Nov. 19 to grant architectural design review, a conditional use permit and major site plan approval for Saint Paul School’s proposed 17,600-square-foot addition at 80 and 117 Dunbarton Road.
The addition, presented by Morgan Dunson of Nobis Group and Bill Massey of Saint Paul School, will relocate the school’s squash courts, add fitness space, and include stormwater and minor parking-lot adjustments. The proposed work includes disturbance within a wetland buffer; the board approved the conditional-use permit for that disturbance and a package of waivers (a through t as amended) after staff and applicant reached a compromise on the scope of required boundary surveying.
Why it mattered: The project is part of longer-term campus improvements and required multiple land-use approvals because of the wetland buffer, parking variances previously granted by the Zoning Board of Adjustment and requested survey waivers. Board members emphasized stormwater treatment measures the applicant proposed to reduce peak post‑development flows.
Board discussion and conditions: Dunson said the building will tie stormwater into a subsurface gallery under the existing parking lot and add roughly seven parking spaces while retaining the lot generally as configured. The applicants noted they previously obtained ZBA variances allowing a reduction to 96 spaces where 334 were required and a variance to permit wetland‑buffer disturbance for the building. Staff recommended conditional approval contingent on precedent and subsequent conditions; the board added recommended clarifying language about the area to be surveyed and an exhibit showing the project vicinity.
Alec Fogg, planning staff, summarized the waivers staff initially recommended for denial and explained the amendment: survey and property-line information would not be required outside the project vicinity as shown on Exhibit E, provided the applicant submits the referenced exhibit and adequate boundary work for the disturbance area. The board amended motions to include those clarifications before voting.
Votes and next steps: The board voted in favor of the waiver package, granted architectural design review, approved the conditional-use permit for wetland-buffer disturbance related to the addition, and granted major site-plan approval with listed precedent and subsequent conditions. The approvals are subject to the conditions enumerated in the staff memo; applicants must satisfy those items before final permits are issued.
