State School panel pulling up stakes

LACONIA — The panel formed to study the development potential of the Laconia State School complex has essentially wrapped up its work. The panel authorized a final draft of a report about the historic value of buildings on the property on Tuesday.

“We don’t disband, but we go into hibernation,” George Bald, chair of the Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission, said toward the end of the commission’s meeting.

The seven-member, volunteer panel was formed four years ago under the provisions of a bill passed by the New Hampshire Legislature in 2017.

Since then the commission has been working to prepare the property for marketing to one or more private developers. The commission’s work has included preparing a master plan, doing environmental assessments to determine whether hazardous materials are present, and a survey of wetlands on the site.

Bald said the research and analysis enhances the ability to redevelop the 225-acre property, because they provide information which will give developers a much clearer picture of the benefits as well as the drawbacks of the property.

“The developer won’t need to start from ground zero" in implementing their plan, Bald explained.

The commission’s responsibilities initially included identifying appropriate private firms to take on the project of developing the site. The property starting in 1903 was the location of the state institution for people with developmental disabilities, and then for about 20 years afterward was used as a state prison.

But last year the commission was sidelined from the process of finding potential buyers, with that responsibility being shifted to the state Department of Administrative Services — the state’s landlord — which then, with the approval of the Executive Council, hired a major real estate brokerage firm to market the property. In June the broker put out a request for proposals from firms that were seriously interested in redeveloping the property. The deadline for submitting those proposals was Aug. 19, and the proposals from four firms have now been selected for the final round of consideration.

The names of the four finalists have not yet been disclosed.

Lakeshore Commissioner Peter Spanos urged that once the finalists are identified that Bald reconvene the commission to discuss the finalists and recommend which of the proposals to select.

Bald said that he would contact Administrative Services Commissioner Charlie Arlinghaus and to discuss with him how the commission can still play a role in the process.

Much of the meeting was taken up with a review of a study draft which identifies the historic significance of the buildings of the property and to identify those which should be strong candidates for preservation.

Of the 35 buildings in the complex, 13 are seen as strong possibilities for preservation or rehabilitation as part of the site’s redevelopment.

But Laconia Planning Director Dean Trefethen told the commissioners there are serious questions about the structural soundness of some of the buildings. Many have holes in the roof which have existed for years and so the floors and other parts of the interiors have deteriorated due to the exposure to the elements, he said.

Commission Vice Chair Robert Cheney noted the condition of the buildings prevented those working on the historic assessment report to go inside to examine their condition first-hand, or to be inspected by a structural engineer.

Some details of the draft report were explained to commissioners by Quinn Stuart, director of cultural resources for VHB, a planning and consulting group, which acted as a subcontractor for NBBJ, an architecture, planning and design firm which prepared the master plan for the property’s redevelopment.