Residents of Hanover's Occom Pond area are worried that the College's construction of a center for Jewish Life will disrupt the residential tranquillity of their affluent neighborhood.
The College is planning to build the center on a 30,000 square-foot plot of land between Occom Ridge Road and Choate Road. More than 70 people who live near the area signed a petition in November urging College President James Freedman and the Board of Trustees to "be a good neighbor," by respecting the residents' concerns.
The petitioners said they want to limit the scope of the center to serving primarily the Dartmouth Community.
Serving the broader Upper Valley Jewish community would cause major parking and traffic concerns, the residential group said in its petition.
Cary Clark, the College's head lawyer, said the College is still waiting on the final plans for the building, which will be shown to area residents later this month.
The Occom Pond Neighborhood Preservation Association, a group of 35 area property owners looking out for residential interests in the Occom area, said its initial perception of the new Center was that it would only serve the neighborhood community.
But members of the group state in their petition that on Sept. 23, after meeting with the architect Frances Halsband and College representatives, it became apparent to them the Center was planning to serve the broader Upper Valley Jewish community.
In that same petition, the signers said the increased visitors would have a "major impact" to the area.
"In particular, our increased concerns are: parking size and placement, traffic access and safety, scope of services, and size/design of building," the petitioners wrote.
Richard Maxson '87, an area resident who signed the petition, said the association wants the College to consider the interests of the Occom Pond community when designing the center.
"The College is part of a community, not in isolation," he said. "We've reached a point where the College's property and the neighborhood practically co-exist."
College Rabbi Daniel Siegel said he thinks the residents' fears come from a concern for the character of the neighborhood and some confusion about the size of the building.
In one non-finalized design, which the College presented to the association in September, the size of the center was larger than the College had originally proposed, he said.
Town citizens will have a chance to discuss the plans for the building at a public meeting later this month. "There will still be a chance to change the design at that point," Siegel said.
Trix Officer, president of the citizen group, told the Valley News she was worried about the neighborhood's attractiveness and about increased traffic.
"To keep having the College encroach more and more into the residential area is a concern," Officer said.
This is not the first time Occom area residents have questioned Dartmouth's construction plans. Last year residents protested a proposal to move the Dragon senior society to a location on Occom Ridge Road. The residents said they feared late night and drunken noise and drunken behavior.
Director of Facilities Planning Gordan DeWitt said the College is still considering alternate locations for the center.
Some residents, working outside the association, hired William Clausen, an attorney, to represent them when they heard a false rumor that the College had already filed an application for a permit with the Town of Hanover.
"Some of the neighbors were concerned that the representations the College was making as to the size was wrong, and then they heard a rumor that the College had already filed an application for a permit," Clausen said. "They asked me if I would take a look at it."
Clausen said the residents did not act out of anti-Semitic feelings.
"If you meet the requirements you can build it. If you don't meet the requirements, you can't build it, and that applies to everybody," Clausen said. "It doesn't matter if you're Jewish, Catholic, Protestant or Agnostic."
The Center will house all Hillel programs, including religious services and dinners and was originally planned as a hub for Jewish activities in the Upper Valley.
Siegel said Hillel, the College's Jewish students organization, has raised half of the estimated $2.2 million required to build the center, but said he can not predict when construction will begin.
"Most other colleges have something like this," Hillel member Mike Hauser '95 said. "It's a definite deficiency for Dartmouth to not have a building of this kind. It discourages many prospective Jewish students."
