Lebanon
Though the club’s owner Joe Asch still maintains that the Lebanon Planning Board overreached by requiring the sprinklers, the building will include the system so it can open this summer as planned, he said in a phone interview on Monday.
So far, the building — which sits on a lot adjacent to the existing club in Centerra business park — has a roof, walls, windows and doors.
Asch said he examined his legal options for appealing the board’s site plan approval — which requires the sprinklers — but determined it would take too long and might not necessarily result in a different outcome.
“(We’ve) folded our tent here and given up,” he said.
The board granted Asch approval in July for the construction of a new child care center that could hold up to 186 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years.
Jenn Parker, the center’s director, said she, her staff and the families they serve are looking forward to having a larger space specifically built for them. The staff and the 83 children they care for currently are housed in classrooms within the River Valley Club.
The new 9,400-square-foot, single-story building has doors for each classroom leading to the parking lot, making it easier for parents to drop off and pick up their children. Each classroom will also have a door to the playground on the other side of the building.
Parker said she is particularly excited to be able to integrate the outdoors into the center’s programing to “bring kids in touch with nature.”
As part of the July decision, at the request of the Lebanon Fire Department, the board included the sprinkler requirement.
The fire department said sprinklers are necessary because of the young age of the children anticipated to be in the building and the length of time it would take firefighters to reach the facility.
Though at the time of the initial approval Asch agreed to install the sprinklers, he reconsidered and sought permission to construct the building without the sprinklers.
At a February Planning Board meeting, he argued that the sprinkler requirement was overly onerous and unnecessary because each classroom in the new building is set to have two doors to the outside, as well as doors to adjacent rooms.
Under the International Building Code, a day care building is allowed to hold up to 100 children under the age of 21/2 without requiring a sprinkler system when the building is located on a ground floor and when every room in the building has doors to the outside, according to information Asch provided to the board in advance of its February meeting.
Asch also said he would prefer to spend the $60,000 cost of the sprinkler system on a nice playground for the children.
The unanticipated cost “blew out our budget,” he said.
The added cost will likely delay earnings from the project and possibly require a rate increase for families, he said.
He characterized the board’s decision as an act of a dictatorship without regard to written rules and regulations.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t sit there furious at this,” he said on Monday.
Planning and Zoning Director David Brooks on Monday said the board acted within its jurisdiction by adding the sprinklers at the request of the fire department.
There’s “nothing in the building code that (says) it can’t be superseded by a more stringent requirement,” he said.
He noted that it would be difficult for children who cannot walk yet to exit the building.
In addition, he said, this was not a case of the board acting of its own accord. The board weighs input from city departments in making its decisions.
“How a given project affects a city’s services and infrastructure is very clearly part of site plan review,” he said.
If construction continues as scheduled, Asch said, he expects the new building will open in late June.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
