New Lebanon School Plan OK'd by Greenwich Selectmen

Plans to build a new New Lebanon School can now move ahead with the Board of Selectmen’s unanimous vote Thursday to grant municipal improvement (MI) status to the project that will replace the overcrowded school in Byram.

The approval of what has been dubbed Option 3, would locate a 58,000 to 60,000 square foot facility behind the existing school that sits upon a plateau on Mead Avenue. The new building will incorporate some of the existing school footprint but utilize a portion of the ravine behind the school that was built in the 1950s.

Before the board vote, architect Ryszard Szczypek of Tai Soo Kim Associates of Hartford explained that the plan — already approved by the New Lebanon School Building Committee and the Board of Education — would be located 14 feet above the bottom of the ravine. … it is a two-story building with one story above plateau, one story below. “But will not feel like it is underground.”

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A pair of entryways to the school, along with the parking lot and extensive student drop-off area and school bus parking area would be located on the plateau where the school is currently located.

There would be parking for 85 cars more than four times the current 19 spaces with a vehicle queueing capacity for 40 vehicles, according to Szczypek.

The project also includes construction of two playgrounds — one for primary grades, the other for older students for a total of 21,300 square feet of recreational space. Currently, the school has about 9,000 square feet for a play area.

It is estimated the cost of the cost and site work, furniture, and moving will be $32.4 million to $33.2 million. That estimate does not include the additional $2.1 million it is expected to cost to relocate students to temporary modular classrooms.

Parent Matthew Popp asked the selectmen to impose conditions on their vote to approve the MI status including moving the building 40 to 50 feet to the north so it is out of the ravine, reduce the proposed number of traffic lanes entering the school from three to two and reduce the number of bus parking spaces from eight to four.

First Selectman Peter Tesei said the board is legally prohibited from imposing conditions to an MI status and that Popp’s suggestions would be included in the formal minutes of Thursday’s meeting that would become part of the entire proposal that will now be submitted to the Planning and Zoning Commission for review and approval.

The selectmen’s vote on Thursday caps nearly seven months of discussion and efforts by school officials to ameliorate the board’s concerns on the school’s location. The selectmen have rejected three previous proposals.

Photo: an architectural model of the proposed New Lebanon School.