CLAREMONT — After a nearly two-hour discussion, the Planning Board unanimously approved the site plan for a new 32,500-square-foot facility for West Central Behavioral Services on the site of the former Moose Lodge on Broad Street.
The new facility will house all facets of West Central’s services, including those for both adults and children, as well as the finance, support and facilities team, Todd French, West Central’s facilities manager, told the Planning Board on Monday.
“We want this to be our flagship location,” French said.
Currently, West Central, a nonprofit mental health care provider, serves adult clients at its offices on West Pleasant Street. Children’s services are provided at a second location on Dunning Street. Neither space is adequate in size, French said. The agency has moved its mobile service to Newport, but will bring it back to Claremont when the new offices are finished.
Construction is expected to begin this summer and will take 14 months to complete, Jonathan Halle, of Warren Street Architects of Concord, which prepared the plans, told the Planning Board on Monday.
West Central bought the property at 209 Broad St. and the abutting parcel at 203 Broad St. for $950,000 last July. The two lots will be merged.
Plans presented by Robert Duvall, president and chief engineer with TFMoran of Bedford, N.H., on Monday call for demolishing the 6,700-square-foot former lodge, which was built in 1962 and closed several years ago.
Two outbuildings on the adjacent parcel at 203 Broad St., that are behind an 1805-era brick building of 4,700 square feet, will also be coming down. The brick building will be renovated and attached to the new, two-story West Central Behavioral Health Center.
Including both the brick building and the new structure, there will be a total of 37,000-square-feet of office and patient space on more than 2 acres. The project includes 111 parking spaces behind the building and along its south side, where the driveway for both entering and exiting the agency will be located. There will also be a small courtyard in the building center.
Several residents with homes abutting the Moose Lodge did not oppose the agency’s plans, but expressed concerns about a row of trees that form a buffer, along with a stockade fence, between properties on Breck Avenue to the south and Bond Street to the west. The trees are on the West Central parcel and some residents said they would like them to stay.
“It is the trees that are the concern,” said Dana Wood, who lives at 5 Breck Ave.
At one time there were large pine trees in the same location, but the lodge removed them, Wood said. Now there is a row of maple trees, which provide a buffer from noise and light, he said.
West Central plans to remove the trees because there is limited space on the south side of the property between the building and lot line with the driveway and parking next to the building, Duvall said.
To replace the wooden fence that surrounds the property on the south, west and north sides, West Central will erect a 6-foot solid, white vinyl stockade fence. The agency plans to plant trees along the west side, or rear of the property. Duvall also noted that the parking lot lighting will be downcast with “zero light spill” into abutting properties.
There is green space of between six and nine feet along the south side and Duvall said they might be able to move the fence to save some trees.
“To the extent we can save any trees without affecting the design, we intend to,” Duvall said. “We will do what we can.”
Halle, the architect, suggested a city official and the applicant “walk the property” prior to construction and tag the trees that might be saved so it is part of the record.
That recommendation became a condition of the site plan approval with the city planner, Austin Ford and the applicant looking at the trees “with an eye to save trees as appropriate.”
Founded in 1977, West Central serves about 1,700 individuals in Sullivan and lower Grafton County with locations in Lebanon, Claremont and Newport.
“We provide a full continuum of care, including outpatient, emergency, case management, residential and continuing care services,” the agency’s website states.
Once open, the hours of the new facility will be Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but West Central’s mobile program, which French said he expects will grow, could see hours late into the evening with walk-ins or staff members returning after a mobile call.
“We are still figuring out the hours on that,” French said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
