Windham Woods eyes major expansion of local campus
Windham Woods School is looking to expand its program by adding an art studio, woodworking shop, and more in new buildings.
Joe Maynard, a project manager with Benchmark Engineering, recently presented a conceptual design for the school’s new buildings to the Planning Board, discussing what changes the school would want to make.
Windham Woods School is a school for children with mild to moderate learning disabilities.
“The biggest thing with them is they don’t have a lot of curriculum things besides just your basic math, English, history … and they’re looking to expand on that,” Maynard said. “Their primary goal right now is to add things kids can have as electives.”
The school is looking to add a performing art studio, an indoor basketball court, a woodshop, a paddock for livestock, a soccer field, and other improvements to the property, like extending roads and repaving parking lots.
Maynard said he wanted to know what the board thought of the plan as it stands as a concept at the July 17 meeting. He also asked for their feedback on the plan, asking if they had significant issues with it regarding safety concerns, like lighting at the field or sidewalk improvements.
“Conceptually, this is a great concept, based on what you guys are willing to provide for your students,” said Planning Board member Payal Ballaya. “I mean, it’s beautiful.”
Planning Board Vice Chair Jacob Cross said he was interested in seeing more information about the wetlands that surround the school properties and didn’t want the board to be caught off guard by any conservation land that might be impacted.
Maynard reassured the board that his team had flagged whatever conservation land could be impacted in advance to make the approval from the Zoning Board of Adjustments go smoother.
The town’s Zoning Board has already approved the conceptual plan at a previous meeting and Maynard said it granted approval for the zoning variances needed for the project to begin.
This conceptual plan is in addition to the application for new offices and a new arts building that Maynard is hoping to begin constructing in August before classes begin.
Windham Woods School, located at 39 Roulston Road, was established in 2018 to help students with mild to moderate disabilities and students who do not do well within a traditional classroom setting. It currently operates as a mostly outdoor program with three main buildings built in 2013, 2019, and 2020.
The school has approximately 200 students from grade one through grade 12, and 70 teachers. Maynard said that because it’s a private school, it does not receive any public funds.
“Being that they’re privately funded, this is a five-year plan that we’re looking at right now,” Maynard said.
The construction would be done in three phases, Maynard said, with the first being an art building, a barn, and paddock area, as well as repaving a portion of the road where kids are picked up and where teachers park.
The second phase would see the construction of the woodshop building, and also add a soccer field, field house, and driveway to reach it.
The third phase would be the performing arts building and the sports courts, and would be the most expensive, Maynard said. — Katelyn Sahagian, Eagle-Tribune
Melissa Gallagher, executive director of the Grapevine Family Resource Center in Antrim, giving a tour of the site of proposed new addition to the Aiken Barn building, which will house the Avenue A Teen Center. (Photo by Jesseca Timmons)
Aiken Barn expansion plan in Antrim approved
The planned move of the Grapevine Family Resource Center’s Avenue A Teen Center took a step forward Thursday night, when the Planning Board approved the site plan for a 2,200-square foot expansion to the Aiken Barn building.
The addition to the Aiken Barn building will enable Avenue A to move from its current location in a rented space on Main Street in Antrim into the Grapevine headquarters.
Grapevine Executive Director Melissa Gallagher and Avenue A Director of Teen Programs Jacqueline Roland have stated that the benefits of bringing the teen center to the Grapevine include improved safety, increased access to resources, access to the outdoors, better integration with the community, convenience for parents, accessibility and increased space for programming.
“We have just outgrown the old space,” Gallagher said.
The Grapevine expansion project is funded by a CDFA Community Center Program Grant, which will be awarded in the form of a forgivable loan. According to Anne Ketterer, principal architect of Novo Studio, the requirements of the grant specify that the project break ground by Sept. 30 and be complete by September 2025.
Gallagher noted that the CDFA funds can only be used for the construction of Avenue A addition and will not fund any programming or operating expenses at The Grapevine or Avenue A.
After a visit to the site, the Planning Board conducted a public hearing regarding the site plan. Jennifer Adams of the Friends of Tuttle Library said that while the group had some concerns about the traffic flow, “the Friends totally, 100% support this project.”
Jeff Lewis of Northpoint Engineering, who presented the site plan, noted that removal of the Grapevine’s existing driveway to Aiken Street will result in a change in traffic pattern for the library and the Grapevine, and could also affect the abutters.
Gallagher and Roland said that Avenue A programs will not bring greatly increased traffic to the Grapevine during normal business hours, and that pickup and dropoff for the after-school program, which currently takes place in the Trends of Fashion parking lot due to the requirements of the bus, will stay the same.
After a discussion about the traffic patterns around the library, the driveway shared with abutters and the public parking lot on the south side of the library, the board approved the site plan with conditions that traffic exiting the Grapevine parking lot will be routed behind the library with a “Left Turn Only” sign, that appropriate “No Parking” signs will be added to the existing parking lot to enable emergency vehicles and that the Grapevine meet with the Select Board before the new addition opens in order to cement a plan for improved traffic signage. — Jesseca Timmons, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
A rendering of the planned Whole Foods Market, which would go in the space most recently occupied by Toys “R” Us at 272 Daniel Webster Highway. (Courtesy of Persona-Triangle)
Nashua to get second Whole Foods, in former Toys R Us space
The city will get a second Whole Foods Market, planned for 272 Daniel Webster Highway in the vacant space that most recently housed Toys “R” Us in the Webster Square shopping center.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment Tuesday will consider a variance for a larger sign at the site. The store, which sells upscale groceries, would complement the one at 255 Amherst St., in the Turnpike Plaza in north Nashua, the variance application says.
“Whole Foods has seen a dramatic increase in traffic,” it says. “Nashua will benefit from the additional footprint.”
The store will be the state’s fourth Whole Foods Market. “[The company] sees this state as a key growth opportunity,” the application says. The Amherst Street Whole foods opened in 2014, the first one in the state. The other two are in Bedford and Portsmouth. The two sites at either end of the city would likely serve different populations – the north Nashua site is convenient to residents north and west of the city, in Merrimack, Litchfield, Hollis, Brookline, and other communities. The busy shopping area on Daniel Webster Highway is close to the Massachusetts border, and gets many shoppers from the Bay State, as well as areas east of Nashua.
The store location is just north of the Pheasant Lane Mall, in Webster Square, and owned by Nashua 272 Realty Ventures LLC. It will be leased to Whole Foods.
The Planning Board in 2021 approved a site plan amendment that would allow the space to be used as a grocery store, though some members said they were concerned about traffic in the shopping area and noted there were already a few grocery stores there. At the time, Patel Brothers, a store specializing in Indian food and groceries, had just announced plans to open a store at 292 Daniel Webster Highway. There is also a Market Basket nearby, as well as Costco.
The new Whole Foods is planned for about 43,000 square feet, and will be larger than the Amherst Street store, which occupies 32,000 square feet.
The space was advertised for lease as grocery space as late as March of this year. Toys “R” Us closed in June 2018. The space has been largely vacant since then, though has been used for a Halloween pop-up store.
The variance would allow a 303-square-foot sign, twice the size of what’s allowed in an HB (highway business) district. The application says the larger sign is necessary because of the “complicated” traffic pattern at the shopping center.
“The public interest is served by allowing the traveling public to safely identify the location of the business,” the application says. “Whole Foods is a destination store for many, especially visitors from Northern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire; this is a busy and somewhat confusing entry, and though it serves this business, this is not immediately clear.” — Maureen Milliken, Nashua Ink Link
