A permit for a proposed assisted living facility on the former Bromley Brook School campus in Manchester is being appealed to the state environmental court. Photo by Greg Sukiennik/Manchester Journal
The project received a change-of-use permit from Manchester Planning and Zoning Director Janet Hurley in February. Resident Kate Heaton and nine others appealed the permit to the Development Review Board, which unanimously upheld Hurley’s decision March 31.
A spokesman for the environmental division of Superior Court said last week that a notice of appeal had been submitted but that details had yet to be filed and are not required until May 18.
Neither Heaton nor the appellants’ attorney, David Cooper, of Rutland, could be reached concerning details of the appeal.
Mary Norman, a principal in the group proposing the facility, said Wednesday that the appeal “absolutely sets us back.” She characterized the continued appeal as primarily aimed at delaying the project.
“That seems to be the tactic,” she said.
Norman added, “I am very concerned. I understand that there is quite a backlog (at the court), and it can take six months to a year to be heard.”
“We were supposed to close on the property tomorrow,” she said Wednesday.
However, she said later that her group had been granted a 30-day extension on the closing date.
Norman also suggested that competition could be an impetus for the appeals. Heaton is listed by the secretary of state’s office as the manager of Equinox Terrace Associates in Manchester.
Norman argued that, since the complex was originally constructed as an assisted living facility, “it was designed for what we do” and that a return to that use is fully justified.
In the appeal to the DRB, Heaton and the other appellants contended that the planning and zoning director lacked authority to issue a permit administratively, rather than requiring a complete application for a conditional use review. The DRB decided, however, that a section of town zoning “expressly grants” the administrator discretion to issue permits in such cases.
The board also rejected the appellants’ argument that the proposed use might not be an authorized use in the zone. The DRB concluded that, “As long as the property is used as a facility in which highly skilled nursing and residential care is provided to people with chronic physical mental impairments, the use is allowed under the zoning bylaws.”
According to the Act 250 application for the project, Bromley Manor Ltd. Partnership, based in Tunbridge, and Spirit Master Funding II LLC, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, plan a 58-bed facility at the former private school. Principals in the Bromley Manor partnership are listed as Norman, Philip Dunn, Darryl Hardman and Coral Hardman.
Norman also is an owner and the director of The Gardens, a senior care facility in Williamstown.
The Manchester complex on Routes 11 and 30 was constructed in 1999 as Oak Knoll Assisted Living and later converted into a campus for the school, which served girls who did not function well in a traditional class setting. The school operated for a decade before closing in 2011.
According to a real estate listing for the property, the wood-frame complex, which has five wings stretching out from a main building, is listed for sale at $1.8 million and encompasses more than 40,454 square feet of floor space.
The main parcel is 8.75 acres and adjacent to a home on a separate 2.02 acres, according to the listing. The site is approved for 75 parking spaces.
Ryan Downey, owner of Point of Beginning Land Surveying and Consulting Inc., of Dorset, helped prepare the change-of-use application and project plan. He said last month that the group plans renovations in the wings of the building that were altered to create classrooms or other school areas.
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