While some concerns over landscaping and the aesthetics of a new building to be constructed on the site remain to be hammered out in future meetings, the Warren Planning Board felt confident enough on Wednesday evening to grant Master Plan approval to the proposal put forth by John Lannan and Ron Louro to transform the historic former Liberty Street School into a 20-unit housing development.

“We greatly appreciate the fact that you have listened all along,” Planning Board Chairman Frederick Massie said. “It’s been a long, strange trip, but you’ve been responsive.”

The development as approved includes renovating the existing school building into 8 total units of housing (two 1-bedroom units and six 2-bedroom units), and constructing a three-story, nearly 4,000-square-foot building to the rear of the property, which will include 12 units (six 2-bedroom units and six 3-bedroom units).

This was apparently a significant enough reduction in size and scope from the developer’s prior proposal, which called for a 6,000-square-foot rear building that contained 18 units rather than 12; and a reduction in the total number of units overall from 25 to 20.

Lannan also stated that they had been able to increase the amount of parking to 30 spaces, which adheres to the local zoning requirement of 1.5 spaces per unit of housing, and increase the amount of landscaped green space throughout the development as a result of downsizing the rear building. He said they would continue to work with neighbors to plant trees as buffers along property lines, and would be sourcing new linden trees to plant at the site to replace two elder trees that will be removed as part of the project.

The board voted 6-1 to move the project along to the preliminary approval step, with only Matthew Atwood voting in opposition.

Still, some areas of concern remained for the board, who provided the approval on the condition that they would have the ability to scrutinize the final landscaping plan and have input into the materials used for the exterior of the rear building.

Atwood asked if there was any possibility to lessen the height of the rear building, to which Lannan responded not without increasing the footprint of the building back to a much larger square footage.

“This is all dictated by math. If I could cut it in half again, I would,” Lannan said. “This represents as far as we can go under this application.”

Massie noted that the small size of some of the bedrooms — which measure as little as 10x9 feet in some of the three-bedroom units — was noteworthy. As part of the approval, the board also made it a condition to try and decrease the number of three bedroom units by as many as possible.

Reached on Wednesday, Lannan said he was appreciative to the Planning Board for their willingness to compromise and ultimately approve a project he believes will benefit the town.

“We are pleased that we were able to reach an equitable compromise and look forward to working with the Town of Warren and the Liberty Street neighbors as this project moves forward. While this phase of the project took longer than anticipated, we always felt there was a good and honest attempt at working out the issues and concerns that arose.,” Lannan said. “We are currently working towards meeting the required steps for our next meeting and in addition plan to show additional window and exterior choices.”

Some neighbors still unhappy with project
For those that spoke during the public comment period, the reduction in the size of the rear building was insufficient to allay their concerns, many of which have been voiced since the project first appeared on the planning board agenda last year.

“We’re talking about building a three-story building that is completely out of keeping with the neighborhood. We’re talking about 44 bedrooms, we’re talking about parking across the front of a property that is in a residential neighborhood. I am truly puzzled,” said Joan Coltrain of Stonegate Road. “I am not opposed to affordable housing, however we would never consider building a condo complex of this size in that location if this were not a comprehensive permit…I simply don’t understand why we would consider a structure in our residential historic district neighborhood that looks like a commercial building, that looks like a barracks, that looks like student housing.”

Eileen Collins, of State Street, reasoned that approving this project — directly after the planning board just essentially denied the Penny Lane development on Child Street for being too dense for that area — was a contradiction.

“Are we not concerned about the density downtown?” she asked. “This is a huge building. Nothing else is like it downtown. This sets a new standard…We care about things that happen downtown. Because we already have a ton of density, tons of parking problems; all of those things exist for us.”

Historic preservation consultant, Ned Connors, objected to approving the project due to the historic nature of the Liberty Street school.

“I would like the board to just consider that this dense, dense neighborhood made a remarkable effort 175 years ago to build a very important and very innovative school that is just a precious asset for the Town of Warren,” he said. “To place a — I have to say it — an indifferently designed box behind it and to occupy that much of the property for the lofty purpose of parking is really the worst thing we could possibly be doing for our historic district.”

Speaking specifically to the trees, Warren Tree Commission Chair Chuck Staton said he wanted to have a part in replacing the linden trees, which Lannan was receptive to.