In this revision of the proposed reuse of the Rogers School building in Fairhaven, the new apartments are situated in an east-west orientation to preserve more of the playground on the southern end of the property. Artist rendering from submitted plans.
By Jean Perry, Neighb News Correspondent
Developers Lanagan & Co. Inc. and Arch Communities LLC have submitted a second design for the Selectboard to consider, days after the Fairhaven Rogers School Re-Use Study Committee rejected the original proposal for a 62-unit affordable senior housing project at the former Rogers School.
The first proposal featured a four-story building with a north-south orientation that encroached the green space to the south of the old school, which advisory committee members and some residents met with opposition.
The second proposal has shifted the building 90 degrees to an east-west orientation on top of the existing footprint of the school’s addition slated for demolition.
Jason Lanagan, Fairhaven resident and the president of New Bedford-based Lanagan & Co. Inc., conducted a site visit outside the old school on Monday morning, 2/1, just as the snow started to fall. According to Mr. Lanagan, he and Arch Communities intend to pursue the project in partnership with the community, relying on guidance from public comments and recommendations for the design of the development to ensure the project serves the neighborhood and enhances it as well.
This artist’s rendering of the proposed reuse of the Rogers School building in Fairhaven shows an aerial view from the west/Chestnut Street side of the property. Artist rendering from submitted plans.
“Almost every segment of the community benefits from this project,” Mr. Lanagan said.
Fairhaven residents would get 62 affordable opportunities to remain in their community, and children and their families would continue to enjoy the playground and park that Mr. Lanagan said would be upgraded and maintained, all within the surroundings of the historic Rogers School building that would be preserved as a part of Fairhaven’s future, not just of its past.
“Knocking down Rogers School — it really shouldn’t be an option,” said Mr. Lanagan. “There are just some historic buildings that shouldn’t be torn down. It’s just extraordinary; you shouldn’t knock this building down.”
He said understands that the community wants to preserve the center’s historical look and feel, and his New Bedford-based real estate brokerage firm has experience in representing clients developing historical buildings.
Mr. Lanagan lives with his family just up the street from the old school. He often walks with his young children to the playground. This summer, he taught his daughter how to ride her bike sans training wheels on the pavement beside the field.
“I’ve always loved the center of Fairhaven,” he said.
Although he grew up in Mattapoisett, Mr. Lanagan’s family tree has roots in Fairhaven — a Selectboard member and a popular high school football coach, to name a couple.
“Housing is what works here,” he said, but only a viable project that can accomplish all the goals: preservation of the historic building, housing that is both affordable and financially sustaining, and a development that fits in with its surroundings.
“We are using the [40C Massachusetts Historic Districts Act] guidelines to drive the building design,” said Mr. Lanagan.
Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40C focuses on preserving the historical characteristics of buildings, maintaining and improving the settings of historical buildings, and encouraging new building designs that are compatible with existing historical buildings.
“And that’s what we are going to do,” said Mr. Lanagan.
This artist’s rendering of the proposed reuse of the Rogers School building in Fairhaven shows the front view from Center Street, with the apartments situated in an east-west orientation. Artist rendering from submitted plans.
When he started exploring the feasibility of a proposal, the team determined that 62 units was the minimum to accomplish a viable professionally managed affordable housing development.
They later looked at the Town’s own independent third-party market study of the Rogers School site from a few years ago, which concluded that 100 units would make a feasible project.
As he continued to dig into the data, he said, “Our strategies continued to line up and make sense.”
When they submitted their RFP to the committee, the focus was more on the project’s financial viability and less on the design of the project.
“That’s the proper order,” he said. “That has to be done before you start talking about design, windows, color…”
Community concerns about the first proposal focused mainly on the building’s size, the rendering’s exterior façade, parking, and the future of the abutting green space.
Rogers School Re-Use Study Committee member Barbara Acksen on 1/19 called it a “mammoth-sized building.”
During that meeting, Gary Lavallette said it was “too big for the location” and wanted to see the units reduced from 62 to 40 to ease parking concerns.
Looking across at Our Lady’s Haven, Mr. Lanagan pointed out how the scale of that addition was proportionate to the original historic building with a similar Tudor-style.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around the scale when you’re looking at an architectural rendering,” he said, adding that the proposed building would match the Rogers School in scale just as the addition does at Our Lady’s Haven. The only difference is that Rogers School is four stories, not three.
“It (the second proposal) would be the same footprint (of the existing addition to the Rogers School), just higher,” he said, but not higher than the roof of the old school.
Although the committee rejected Lanagan and Arch Communities’ first proposal, it did vote to encourage the developer to propose alternative designs to the Selectboard, which has the ultimate authority on whether to allow the RFP to move forward.
Mr. Lanagan told the committee on 1/19, “I think your plan to allow us to go back to the drawing board based on all of the feedback … is absolutely fair, and I think people will be pleased with the provisions that we come back with.”
Mr. Lanagan said he has already been consulting with members of the community on the updated design of the building to enhance the existing neighborhood, but the scale of the project has to be 62 units.
“But we’re taking in everything that we’re hearing, and I think we have some pretty good solutions,” he said.
“I think where [the developer] is going with it is the right thing to do,” said Selectboard member Keith Silvia, the board’s representative on the committee. “This [was] just their first take at it.”
“Through negotiations, I think this project will do very well in the future….” commented an unidentified man.*
The proposal for the $21,370,000 age 55+ housing development, which would include $550,000 in Community Preservation Act funds, features 56 one-bedroom units and six two-bedrooms — with six of those 62 units to be rented at market rate; the rest of the apartments would be considered affordable housing units.
Arch Communities would purchase the property from the town for $285,000. Most of the project’s funding would be acquired from federal and state tax credits and through the Massachusetts Department of Community Development, MassHousing, and conventional financing.
A site like the Rogers School is rare, said Mr. Lanagan.
“I understand the process, and you take it one step at a time using a holistic point of view,” he said.
He stressed the importance of welcoming feedback from the folks who oppose the project because that input is often invaluable in putting together a project that the community can support.
So, when the time comes for the Selectboard to decide, said Mr. Lanagan, “Then they’re deciding on something that’s been shaped by the community.”
The new proposal is available on the town’s website at https://www.fairhaven-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3131/f/uploads/rogers_school_-_relich_lanagan_revised_plans_2021-01-29.pdf
The original proposal is at https://www.fairhaven-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3131/f/uploads/rogers_school_rfp_archlanagan_2020-01-11_red.pdf
*Corrected from previous versions, speaker unidentified. Comment was not made by Doug Brady. We apologize for the error.
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