A Warehouse Building in Hanover?
Dartmouth College is hoping to build an industrial-sized, warehouse-like athletic facility at the edge of its fields behind Thompson Arena and Boss Tennis Center and adjacent to a residential neighborhood. This building is out of character with the neighborhood and all of Hanover in general and is strongly opposed by the families living nearby.
The effect this athletic facility will have on the area is not restricted to this neighborhood alone. I am concerned that it is the beginning of a trend by Dartmouth College to erect structures throughout town without community input.
Many of you may not know that Dartmouth is building what they call a “tensile structure” that encompasses the two tennis courts that used to be next to Alumni Gym on East Wheelock Street. The Sprung company that manufactures this structure prides itself on providing “high-performance fabric building solutions.” Its website highlights the use of its product for military use, warehousing, airplane hangars, community pool enclosures, corrections facilities, frac sand storage, mining, bus maintenance facilities and disaster recovery sites. This location is solidly surrounded by Dartmouth College property, so community opinion was not sought. However, this location is central to Hanover and affects the aesthetics and personality of our town.
A utilitarian structure within our community has negative impact regardless of whether it is fully surrounded by Dartmouth College property. The negative impact is magnified when it encroaches upon neighborhoods. As a community, we must protect the character of our town. Please see relocateDartmouthIPF.wordpress.com for more information, voice your opposition to the college and the Hanover Planning Board before its meeting Tuesday or attend the Planning Board meeting to personally voice your concerns.
Julie Kim
Hanover
Too Big for the Neighborhood
Dartmouth College and the town of Hanover enjoy a symbiotic relationship. Each adds to the value and quality of life of the other. Everyone realizes that an institution such as Dartmouth needs to grow organically and such growth often requires physical expansion. Such physical expansion has the potential to impact both the commercial and residential areas of Hanover. I think most residents would not be upset about minor incursions, minor changes to neighborhood architecture or traffic. And, I think, for the most part, Dartmouth has not been flagrantly disregarding the quality of neighborhoods and community.
Over the years Dartmouth has proposed several building/expansion projects that were arguably detrimental to the character of abutting neighborhoods and some were blocked, others not. The proposed indoor practice facility is quantitatively and qualitatively different from previous projects. It is an enormous warehouse-like building crammed into a small space and blatantly intrudes into and disrupts the harmony and quality of the adjacent Tyler Road community. We can argue back and forth about setbacks, height, misleading representations on Dartmouth’s part, but there is one clear and obvious fact. If we apply the “doctrine of the reasonable person” and show the plans, elevations and plat to any dozen (or hundred) people who have no vested interest in this proposal and ask them if it is an appropriate thing to do to a community, I think we all know what the overwhelming response would be. This project is not reasonable and it is not reasonable to expect the residents of the Tyler Road community to have such a project thrust into their community and, in effect, subsidize its construction with their property values. The “reasonable person” would certainly recognize that the indoor practice facility is harmful to the character of the neighborhood.
This is not a small, reasonable Dartmouth project. It is an intrusive, out-of-character industrial warehouse-type building thrust into a residential neighborhood.
Anne C. Pearson
Norwich
Francis J. Manasek
Hanover
Help Artists Thrive
Having recently moved to Vermont, I am struck, not only by its natural beauty, but by the richness of its arts and crafts community. If this community is nurtured and supported, it will help and enrich the state, not just aesthetically, but economically.
Artists and galleries make good neighbors; they do not pollute, and they attract civil and well-to-do tourists. As the artists prosper, they increase surrounding economic activity and property values.
Since artists and galleries are so beneficial, they should be encouraged, and the easiest way to do this is to remove the sales tax on art. I urge your readers to contact their representatives to enact this.
David W. Pratt
Bradford, Vt.