The Hanover Zoning Board classified the Life Sciences Building as an educational building in October, a ruling that would allow the construction to proceed without a review because the building will be in an institutional zone. The Hanover Planning Board, which examines factors such as the light and noise a building will generate, approved the plan for the center in November.
The association, composed of Hanover residents who live at the northern edge of Dartmouth's campus, argued that the zoning board should have classified the Life Sciences Building as a research building, according to Barry Schuster, the association's attorney. While the erection of an educational building is automatically permissible in an institutional zone, a research building can only be built following "a certain level of review," Schuster said.
"Even if it is in furtherance of education, because there is a more specific category that describes its use, it must go through a special review," Schuster said.
The College argues that the Life Sciences building is an educational building because graduate and undergraduate students will use it, according to Mary Gorman, associate provost for the College.
"It's so tied into the school's education program, it's hard to imagine thinking it's not an educational building," she said.
The association also challenged the Hanover Planning Board's approval of the plans. The group maintains that the College has not yet addressed the light and traffic created by the project, Schuster said.
The board's decision is also invalid, the association contends, because the board's chairwoman, Nancy Collier, is married to a professor at the Thayer School of Engineering.
"She's voting for her husband's employer. It is simply too close a conflict," Schuster said. "The decision should be set aside because of that inherent bias."
Collier has stated on the record that her position on the board is not a conflict of interest, Ellen Arnold, associate general counsel of the College, said. She added that Collier does not have a financial interest in the outcome of the case.
The plans for the building have already been altered many times, and changes have been made to reduce light and noise in order to to make it less obtrusive to nearby residents, according to Gorman.
The College, which met with association members on March 1, attempted to settle the Planning Board issue out of court prior to the hearing, Gorman said. The College made proposals on a number of issues raised by the association, Gorman said, adding that association members present at the meeting seemed "very pleased with what we offered."
The College sent a legal proposal based on this meeting to the association, but has yet to receive a counter-proposal, Arnold said.
"We had hoped we would have heard from them," Arnold said.
The association favors a negotiated settlement, according to Schuster, but believes that the College has not adequately dealt with the noise generated by the building. Exhaust fans and loading docks that face the residential area surrounding the building still must be addressed, he said.
"They've been open to looking at demands," Schuster said. "They have not been as open to making changes."
The Life Sciences Building will not be ready for occupancy until March 2011 at the earliest, according to Gorman. Stephen Campbell, director of the Office of Planning, Design and Construction at the College, said he hoped the building would open in March 2010 in an October interview with The Dartmouth, .
Schuster said any further actions taken by the association depend upon the court's ruling.
The Grafton court normally tries to render decisions in 30 days, Arnold said, but the high number of cases currently before the court means a decision will likely not be announced for several months.
