Brown School housing project site plan OK'd

BERLIN — Conversion of the Brown Elementary School into workforce and affordable housing took a major step forward with approval of its site plan earlier this month by the city’s Planning Board.

In general, a site plan approval allows development to begin when construction of a project is ready to do so. Land removal or any outward change to a building that alerts passersby to a structural change underway is a next step once site plan approval is gained. The city remains the current owner of the brick building at 190 Norway St., off Route 16’s Main Street.

Permits need to be granted and the cost of the permits for this non-commercial project will be about $300 to $400, said Pam Laflamme, community development director, in an interview after the Planning Board’s Oct. 6 meeting.

Young grade-school students now attend the Berlin Elementary School, the one school to serve their learning needs now that the Brown and Bartlett elementary schools are closed. Declines in student population required the city to rethink its building needs, a trend happening in other New England public schools.

Key to the community and the fundraising efforts that went into purchasing playground equipment still in place on the Brown School’s grounds is the future of those structures. The plan is to relocate them to the sole elementary school at 200 State St.

The Brown School’s footprint — or total perimeter at its outer edge and outer walls — will be kept.

All parking space at the building will remain plus there will be one curb cut on Main Street. This new entrance off Route 16 will keep traffic flow better for the neighborhood, said Tim Coulombe, of TKB Properties.

Many family memories have been made at the city’s schools and the elementary schools are no exception. The Brown school closed in 2019; the Bartlett school closed in 2013.

Repurposing the school, a city property, into new rental housing will create new homes for people to live. The 2023 fair market housing prices for Coos County means a one-bedroom apartment may rent for $779 and $950 for a two-bedroom apartment.

All such units would help the city’s housing crunch.

More from this section

+6

How gas prices have changed in New Hampshire in the last week

Ossipee police chief says ICE program helped deport Salvadoran

“Twenty units of new rentals will be a good addition in the city,” Laflamme said.

Preservation of the look and feeling of the Brown School is a goal of its next life.

Thirty-four parking spaces will be created, with a 1.7 parking space per unit, said Coulombe. TKB Properties is under the umbrella of New England Family Housing. TKB Properties has applied for funds from InvestNH. The money made available from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA — about $60 million — will help developers statewide, Coulombe said. TKB also worked on the repurposing of the Bartlett School on Mt. Forist Street in 2016.

Work on the Brown school may begin next spring, if not this winter, Coulombe said. Finding construction and other workers for the project will not be a problem

“There’s definitely a lot of qualified people around here,” he said.

Both Coulombe and Kevin Lacasse, the CEO of New England Family Housing, have ties to Berlin.

Coulombe attended the Bartlett school as a student while Lacasse went to the Brown school.

“It’s nice to help out the community especially with projects that we have a direct connection to,” Coulombe said.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.