LEBANON — As negotiations continue on an agreement with a nonprofit agency to build a child care center on Seminary Hill, the city is working on zoning changes to make the project possible.
The city and Lebanon School District are still hammering out a lease with the Boys & Girls Club of Central and Northern New Hampshire to construct the 5,400-square-foot childcare center, parking and a playground on two Seminary Hill lots owned by the city and school-district.
The nonprofit would build, own and operate the daycare with space for about 50 children. The city would provide the land and help secure certain grant funding. The current proposal calls for the facility to be built next year with opening planned for mid-2028, according to materials prepared for a Wednesday City Council meeting.
As the city prepares for the project, the nonprofit continues to secure funding for the facility now estimated to cost $5.4 million, Boys & Girls Club CEO Chris Emond said in a Thursday email.
The Boys & Girls Club has secured $3.39 million so far, Emond said.
This month, the Northern Border Regional Commission allocated $1 million to the project and the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority has awarded $700,000 in tax credits to the project.
Emond said the club also has a “verbal commitment from a foundation” of $250,000. And the City of Lebanon has earmarked a $1.6 million congressionally directed spending allocation for the project.
City planning and development staff have secured City Council approval to pursue two zoning changes to help the project at a June 17 meeting. Associate Planner Catheryn Hembree described the changes as “very minor.”
Typically, the city’s Planning and Development Department proposes zoning changes annually in the fall, but this time, staff members are working on a proposal this summer to help meet “tight deadlines” for some of the childcare center funding, Planning and Development Director Nate Reichert told the council at the meeting.
“Moving this forward fairly quickly is helpful from a grant-writing perspective,” Reichert said.
In particular, Reichert said the city has to file an application for a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant for the project by the end of July. If the grant is awarded, the nonprofit has to be ready to move forward fairly quickly afterward.
The City Council is scheduled to discuss that grant at a Wednesday meeting.
The zoning changes also likely have to be finalized before the Boys & Girls Club can bring a construction proposal to Lebanon’s planning board, Deputy City Manager David Brooks said at the same meeting.
One zoning change would allow people to build childcare facilities as a second primary structure on properties zoned for residential or residential office use in Lebanon with Planning Board permission. Currently, only one “principal structure” is allowed per lot in residential districts with few exceptions.
The properties on Seminary Hill are zoned for residential use and the school district property where the facility is proposed to be built already hosts the SAU 88 offices as a primary structure.
A second change would allow childcare facilities to count on-street parking spaces or spaces in an adjacent “parking facility” toward parking requirements.
While the current design for the childcare center includes a parking lot on the same property as the proposed facility, project plans aren’t finalized and flexibility with parking might be needed as the project goes through the review process, Reichert explained.
“I support this project, I want to see it go forward, but I want to make absolutely sure that no one’s going to come forward and accuse us of spot zoning,” City Councilor Laurel Stavis said at the meeting.
Because the changes would apply to any residential property in Lebanon, not just the lot on Seminary Hill, it would not be spot zoning, Reichert told the council.
The council voted unanimously to allow the Planning Department to bring the changes to other city boards for feedback.
Staff presented the changes to the Planning Board earlier this month and are scheduled to meet with the Zoning Board and Conservation Commission next week before coming back to the City Council for a public hearing and council vote scheduled for Aug. 19.
Lebanon’s Planning Board also voted unanimously to recommend the zoning changes last week.
“We have real problems with daycare,” Vice Chairman Wes Achord said at the meeting. “If we need to make some zoning amendments that’ll help that project and also help people with getting maybe potentially daycare in a denser environment, I don’t have any concerns.”
