CORE Team Master Plan Report to the Board

Since our last Board meeting in March 2012 the CORE team consisting of Robin Morris, Kinny Perot, John Connell, Kate Stephenson Kathy Meyer and Abby Martin have met weekly focused on reconciling the master plan and applying for Town and State Permits.

The attached current version of the master plan shows the known conditions and constraints including wetlands, steep slopes, stream setbacks, zoning setbacks etc. The building forms are “principle gestures” and have not yet been designed.
TheCOREteam’sfocushasbeenondefiningthebuildconstraintsof theproposedmasterplanandto
thisendthefollowingfieldteamshavebeenestablished:
•    Forest, Agriculture, Wildlife, Wetlands – Kinny Perot, Abby Martin, Dave Warren, Buzz Ferver, Aaron Locker
•    Ground & Storm Water – Kinny Perot, Andres Torrizo, Tony Stout, Maeve McBride, Peter Lazorchak, Ethan Timm
•    Waste Water – Robin Morris, Pete Munoz, Peter Lazorchak, Malena Marvin, Barton Kirk, Harold Leverenz
•    Design&Plan–JohnConnell, KathyMeyer
•    Energy & Solar – John Connell, John Ringel, Jeff Schoellkopf, Andy Shapiro, Kate Stephenson, Jesse Cooper
In January, the school submitted an application to the Waitsfield DRB for sketch plan review and plans to submit a detailed site plan application by July 24th (6 months after sketch plan review). The next review is a two-­‐step approval process and we anticipate that dialogue with the DRB during the first step will result in additional reconciliation and data generation prior to the final review.
Critical to our permit is the approval by the DRB of “design criteria” for the buildings in phase I & II that will allow a Semester Course to design/build a building without returning to the DRB for any approvals. This was discussed in the DRB at sketch plan review and will likely be a lengthy discussion.
Onapprovalof apermit fromWaitsfieldDRB, thenext stepisanAct 250applicationtogetherwith
othersupportingpermits.
Once we receive the Act 250 the school will be in a position to decide whether to move forward with Phase I of the build out including:
Phase Ia              Greenhouse Phase 1b      Intern housing  
Phase 1c                Semester Studio/Workshop and student accommodation
ApplyingandreceivingTownandStatepermitsforthemaster planiscriticaltotheschoolforthe
followingreasons:
•    The Town’sAdaptiveReuseOverlayDistrict requiresamasterplan
•    The masterplanprovidesacontext fordecisionmakingof anybuilt formonsite
•    Additionalpermittingdoesnot workforon-­‐sitesemesterdesignbuildprojects 
•    MasterPlanprovidesclarityforthefutureof theSchool
•    The current wastewatersystemwillrequiremovingtoareplacement field
Thefinancingof themasterplanwasfromrestrictedfundsspecificallydonatedforMasterPlanning.
In summary, whether or not the school moves forward with the entire build-­‐out, a permitted master plan is critical to ongoing decision-­‐making.  The CORE team is committed to finishing this current stageof permitting and look forward to further discussion at the forthcoming board meeting.
Current iteration of master plan as of 6-12-12