State School development plan to be unveiled next week

LACONIA — A plan for redeveloping the Laconia School School property is scheduled to be unveiled next Wednesday here in the city.

Details will be given at a public presentation on Wednesday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. The open meeting will be held at Laconia Middle School, if possible, in order to accommodate the anticipated large turnout, Mayor Andrew Hosmer said.

The presentation of the plan for developing the 225-acre site will be made by a representative of CBRE, the international commercial real estate firm which has been in charge of marketing the property since late last year, said Executive Councilor Joe Kenney, whose district includes Laconia.

The presentation will give the public an overview of what the development will consist of as well as the timeline for the phases of the project. Kenney stressed that the meeting is an information session, and not a public hearing.

“We want an inclusive process, but we want a deliberative approach and we want to stay on track,” Kenney said regarding the format for next week’s presentation.

The plan is the one selected by a special ad-hoc committee as the best proposal to forward to the Executive Council, which must approve the sale of any state property.

It is unknown if the name of the developer or the proposed purchase price for the property will be shared during the session.

In addition to the CBRE representative, others expected to attend next week’s event are Charlie Arlinghaus, the state commissioner of administrative services, which currently oversees the State School complex; members of the technical advisory committee which has been reviewing the top four development proposals; and Kenney.

Recently, the city sent a letter to Arlinghaus and members of the Executive Council reiterating its priorities for the development:

• Public access for low-impact recreational activity.

• Balanced, mixed-use development with an emphasis on a varied stock of workforce housing.

• Reuse of historic buildings on the site where possible.

• Infrastructure built to city standards.

• Plans for dealing with any environmental concerns on the site.

• Study of traffic impact.

In addition, the letter, signed by Hosmer, asked that the review committee “reject any proposal that does not provide for a full layout of the property and instead just ‘cherry picks’ the easy to develop components.”

“The letter makes clear what the city’s priorities are, and the state is in receipt of that letter,” Hosmer said. “We are looking forward to hearing the details of a plan which will share those priorities. We are looking forward to working with a developer that will have a good relationship with the city.”

Kenney said he anticipates that the committee’s preferred plan will be forwarded to the Executive Council with a recommendation that the council approve it. He said the first of two votes could take place as soon as next month. Once the council gives the initial approval, the Department of Administrative Services will then negotiate a detailed contract. Once the draft of the contract has been completed and the state and the developer have agreed to all the terms, the proposal will come back to the Executive Council for a second, and possibly final, vote.

Once ownership passes from the state to the developer, the property will then be on the city’s tax rolls, and all development proposals will need to conform to the city’s planning and zoning regulations and processes.

“It’s taken eight years for us to come to this point,” Kenney said of the process to find a developer. The property has been mostly unoccupied since the 1990s when the school closed. “I’m very optimistic about the outcome. The mayor will be quite pleased with this proposal.”