BATH

A pre-application workshop for Huse School property development project prompted plenty of questions and suggestions, but was well received by the Bath Planning Board members on Tuesday night.

The workshop is the result of a purchase and sales agreement between the City of Bath and the Szanton Company, a development firm based in Portland, for the sale of the Huse School property that was approved in early March.

According to Nathan Szanton, president of the company, the project proposes the construction of housing units on the property. That will involve a historic renovation of the school and addition of a new wing on the northeast corner of the building. The new wing will help achieve the project goal, with 49 one-bedroom units and five two-bedroom units planned.

Szanton said the project will encourage housing for young professionals and seniors, and falls in line with the city’s comprehensive plan and the Bath Area Housing Assessment, research shwoing a lack of affordable housing in Bath.

“They wouldn’t be families with kids, but young people, young couples, elderly couples, single or married — empty nesters,” Szanton said.

He said they have already conducted meetings with the Bath Parks and Recreation Department, Bath YMCA, Bath Municipal Band and St. Mary’s Church — organizations that will be directly affected by the project.

David Lloyd, the architect for the project, also expressed the importance of preserving the history of the school building.

“We will be restoring it, pretty closely to what it would have looked like in 1942,” he said, “and the new addition will reflect a modern style from the early- ’40s.”

The company also hosted two neighborhood meetings in January and March so community members could learn more about the project.

“In the middle of the first meeting, things became much more cooperative and there was much less wariness amongst the neighbors,” said Szanton. “At the second meeting, everyone was very cooperative, very supportive. We felt the neighbors were really behind us.”

At the January meeting, residents expressed concerns regarding parking issues, which were echoed by planning board members as well.

The company proposes 84- 87 parking spaces for future tenants, with one parking space reserved for each apartment.

Szanton added that additional parking spaces will be provided for members of the Bath Municipal Band, since they have been parking on the Huse School property during their practices.

Board member Andrew Omo said another parking issue could arise as people use the Huse School as overflow parking, and asked how it would affect events at the YMCA, the little league fields and St. Mary’s Church.

Based on feedback received at the neighborhood meeting, Andy Jackson, the project manager, said the company pursued their own parking research by counting cars at these major events, one of the biggest being the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference swim meet in February at the YMCA.

The company tallied the number of parked cars at the YMCA, St. Mary’s Church, the ball field lot and the surrounding streets and found that there was enough room for parking without the use of the Huse school property.

“For most of February, as you know, there was a ton of snow in the Huse School parking lot, and that kind of forced a situation where it couldn’t be could not used as overflow parking,” said Jackson. “What we found was that even during the biggest swim meet, we didn’t see a significant uptake in parking on the streets.”

Board members were also concerned with tenant parking spots because of the snowy winters, and whether keeping a turnaround area open in the back of the building would be a challenge due to snow pileups.

Szanton didn’t see the concern as he expected that not all tenants would own cars, and parking spaces in the back of the building would be fairly vacant.

“We think as many as 25 percent of the units may be rented to 65 and older, and some don’t own cars, don’t feel safe driving, and like living in an area that has a walking distance to downtown,” he said.

Despite these assumptions, board member John Swenson expressed some concern with tenant parking, and was “not yet convinced” of these conditions.

Vice Chair James Hopkinson agreed with Swenson and asked the team for empirical background evidence for parking relief, and asked if their plan was consistent with their parking plans in other projects.

The Szanton Company will take these suggestions from the board and continue to work on submitting an application for the board’s approval in the coming months.

For those who want to learn more about the project, information can be found at szantoncompany.com.

dkim@timesrecord.com