Dartmouth Planning Board OKs proposal for Holy Cross site

DARTMOUTH — The Planning Board Monday night approved a controversial subdivision proposal for the site of what will be Montessori School of the Angels' new home.

The board approved Westview Estates, a 21-lot open space residential subdivision at 824 Tucker Road, formerly the site of the former Holy Cross Fathers property. Last month, the Montessori School of the Angels in Westport announced a move to the Holy Cross Fathers Mansion. The mansion was built in 1910 and used as housing for retired priests in the Congregation of Holy Cross. The priests left the site in 2015.

In unanimously approving the Tucker Road subdivision's special permit and certificate of actions, the panel said the project will include preserving as open space 33.73 acres of the roughly 58 acres of land on the Holy Cross Fathers Mansion property.

The lone sticking point as the board voted its endorsement was who would hold the conservation restriction and manage the land as open space.

Attorney Marc Borowski, representing the developer Ken Steen, said the development's homeowners' association would have to hold the restriction because the town Conservation Commission has said it has no budget to do that regular maintenance work on its own.

Town Planner Christine O'Grady protested that the language of the original proposal put the restriction in the hands of the town.

"Will the residents be told there will be an added cost to them for C.R. management?" Board Chair Lorri-Ann Miller asked pointedly.

The board and the developer's representatives agreed the approval document will include any agreement town counsel, the developer and the town will reach regarding conservation restriction ownership.

Montessori Principal Alice Marie Levesque said the school’s current building at 1180 American Legion Highway in Westport is going to be used for other purposes in the diocese. The school has been at its current site for 20 years, so it’s going to be a big move, she said.