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Marlborough School Updates Community on the Arden Project

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Marlborough School officials met with residents of Arden Blvd on Tuesday evening to update them on the school’s plan to demolish five houses making way for expanded athletic facilities, increased parking and green space.

Demolition of two houses at the corner of Arden and Third Street and three houses north of the current school footprint will allow the school to create a regulation size soccer field of artificial turf. Nighttime lighting will not be installed.  A new aquatics center will feature a state-of-the-art pool 36 yards by 25 yards long and 8 feet deep, that will include a seating pavilion with a capacity for 175 spectators and 1,500 feet of storage for portable starting blocks, lane lines, and pool maintenance equipment.

The plan also adds approximately 5,500 square feet of natural grass for garden and community gathering spaces and  a surface parking lot with 60 spaces, reducing demand on local streets for parking. The Arden and Third Street corner will be set back and landscaped to provide site lines for drivers making turns much like the corner at Rossmore and Third Street.

The Arden Project  began in the late 1990s with conversations with residents as the school began to acquire homes along the west side of the 200 block of Arden Blvd.  After much discussion and many hours of meetings, the residents and the school worked out a detailed agreement called the New Plan that included private agreements to limit the number of events and mitigate negative impacts on the neighbors as well as conditions enforceable by the city contained in the school’s Conditional Use Permit (CUP).

Barbara Wagner, Head of School, explained the school has extended the covenants to 2037 that prevent the school from changing anything in the New Plan unless seven of the 12 residents on South Arden agree to the proposed changes.  Among those residents in attendance, Amanda Parsons, Beth Weissman and Chris Tobias praised the school and Ms. Wagner, in particular, for their consideration of the neighborhood and for following through on the promises made over the 15 year process.

Initially contemplated in three phases, the school now proposes to complete the entire project in one year, breaking ground in June 2015 and finishing before school starts in September 2016.  Residents were advised that Marlborough has engaged architectural salvage experts to remove any valuable features from the houses slated for demolition and the school archivist was anxious to get in and document the homes.

Nick Hernandez, head of Finance and Operations explained the construction will be done by Matt Construction, the firm that built Munger Hall five years ago and is sensitive to working in a residential neighborhood. He also said all the trucks will enter and exit on Third Street and no parking on Arden will be permitted.  Hernandez said the school has made arrangements with SSA for additional security patrols and will give residents the number for the school’s 24-hour construction hotline once it becomes operational.

More renderings of the Arden Project can be seen at

Larchmont Buzz: Marlborough School Arden Project about to Launch

Rendering of the new pool complex.
Rendering of the new pool complex.

 

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Patricia Lombard
Patricia Lombard
Patricia Lombard is the publisher of the Larchmont Buzz. Patty lives with her family in Fremont Place. She has been active in neighborhood issues since moving here in 1989. Her pictorial history, "Larchmont" for Arcadia Press is available at Chevalier's Books.

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