The appeal to Vermont environmental court was filed by Kate Heaton, of Equinox Terrace assisted living facility in Manchester, and nine others.
They challenge Planning and Zoning Director Janet Hurley’s approval of a change-of-use permit for the former Bromley Brook School campus and the Development Review Board’s vote in late March to uphold that decision.
Details of the appeal were filed with the court late last week.
The filing focuses on whether Hurley has the authority to approve conditional uses; which side is responsible for proving its case; whether Hurley and/or the DRB misjudged the project’s impacts; whether the project is a permitted, conditional or prohibited use; and whether the board “wrongfully approved a different use of the property than what the applicants applied for.”
The proposed 58-unit facility is planned by Bromley Manor Ltd. Partnership, based in Tunbridge, and Spirit Master Funding II LLC, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The developers seek to create the facility at the former private school, which was originally constructed as an assisted living complex.
Principals in the Bromley Manor partnership are Mary 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.
“We are going ahead with the purchase [of the property] despite this appeal,” Norman said Monday. “We are confident we will prevail. We are very excited about the opportunity to offer more services to the people of the Manchester area.”
Norman expressed frustration over the legal challenge, which she said could take a year or more to be resolved.
“During this period we are not going to be as aggressive in what we could be doing,” she said. Her plan had been to close on the property May 1 and get the first unit ready for use by mid-June.
“There also will be a significant cost to carry the building for another year,” Norman said.
She said she believes the appeal is primarily being mounted by a competitor in the business, Heaton, as a delaying tactic to discourage the project.
Heaton is listed by the secretary of state’s office as the manager of Equinox Terrace Associates in Manchester.
The appellants’ attorney, David Cooper, of Facey, Goss & McPhee, of Rutland, could not be reached this week for comment on the appeal.
Hurley, the zoning director, said Tuesday she believes the questions raised in the appeal have been addressed at the town level. Among the items listed, she said the DRB determined that the zoning administrator has the authority to issue such permits, including for conditional uses.
She said nursing homes are considered a conditional use in the zone, and that the project as proposed includes the same type of care.
And she said the property has in the past undergone permit reviews for uses that were more intense in various aspects — such as concerning water use by the former school.
In its vote on the permit appeal, the DRB determined that a section of town zoning “expressly grants” the zoning administrator discretion to issue permits in such cases. The board also rejected the appellants’ argument that the proposed use might not be an authorized one 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.”
The former school complex, east of Route 7 on routes 11 and 30, was constructed in 1999 as Oak Knoll Assisted Living and later converted into a school for girls. The school operated for a decade before closing in 2011.
According to a recent real estate listing for the property, the woodframe structure, which has five wings stretching out from a main building, was 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 an adjacent home is set on a separate 2.02 acres. The site is approved for 75 parking spaces.
