Town officials, historic preservation advocates, and members of the Warren Planning Board’s technical review committee (TRC) met Friday afternoon with developers who have acquired the property at 10 Liberty St., where the vacant Liberty Street School has sat for years, and gave a preliminary overview of their plans to transform the property into 24 total units of housing.

The developers, John Lannan of Bristol and Ron Louro of Warren, have not submitted a plan to the town yet, rather the meeting was held in order to get an informal, overhead view of the developer’s intentions and ask some preliminary questions prior to moving forward in a more official capacity. The developers intend to utilize the comprehensive permit for the project, the same mechanism used for the ongoing development proposed at 119 Water St.

The site plan that was reviewed by the TRC and town officials who gathered — which included interim planning director Alison Ring, DPW Director Brian Wheeler, building/zoning official Matt Cabral, and Fire Chief James Sousa — showed that they intended to convert the existing school building into six housing units, and planned to construct a building behind the school that would house an additional 18 units.

The developers said that it was their intention to restore the existing school property and maintain its brick aesthetic, and that they would seek to recreate that same exterior appearance for the new building, which would also be built to the same height as the original school.

Developers asked to consider a smaller building
Davison Bolster, representing the town’s historic preservation groups at the meeting, presented his own packet of research consisting of the history of the school and the land, and made a recommendation for a smaller structure to be built behind the existing building that more matched the size of the Liberty School.

“It’s a big lot, it’s underutilized, and we do need housing…But I think it shouldn’t be bigger than the existing building,” Bolster said. “If that could be scaled back to mimic the footprint of this, I would support that.”

Chief Sousa said that his one concern upon the initial review was the ability for fire apparatus to adequately access the property, which Lannan and Louro had drawn up with 24 tightly-packed parking spaces. DPW Director Wheeler advised the developers to think about the accumulation and removal of snow when looking at their site design.

Planning Board Chairman Fred Massie, alluding to the Water Street project, told the developers that he would be interested in a project that included more than 50% of the units to be listed as affordable, in order to help the town move closer to the mark set by the state for 10% of its housing stock to be in the affordable range.

Lannan said that he was open to the idea of providing more affordable housing, but if they wound up having to scale the new construction down to be smaller, it might impact the feasibility of doing so, considering the inflated cost of building materials. Lannan and Louro said that the concept of a smaller building might have merit, as it could open up more space for emergency vehicles and even boost the value of housing units by allowing for more green space and potential amenities on-site.

“This is a starting point, and there’s a lot of different ways we can go,” Lannan said.

Bolster also mentioned his hopes that the two Linden trees located towards the front of the property (they are on private property, not public) would be spared from the chainsaw, which Lannan was open to.

“I’m not inclined to take a tree down if people have fallen in love with it,” he said, although he added that one neighbor he spoke to had requested them to be removed. “We’re not trying to go in there and upset anybody, believe me.”

Public interest notable, but meeting tone was cordial
Bruce Cox, an attorney representing Lannan and Louro for the project, commented on the public attention that the meeting had generated, with more than 10 members of the public in attendance for the informal meeting — undoubtedly due in part to the ongoing interest in the 119 Water St. project.

“This is the first TRC meeting I’ve ever been to where there’s been an audience,” he said with a smile, adding that the developers have deep roots to the area (Ron Louro actually went to kindergarten at the Liberty School), and that they wanted the process to be as collaborative as possible.

“John and Ron are sensitive to the community’s needs. We’re not going to be stuffing something down peoples’ throats. That’s not our style.”