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Community Corner

Coaltition for Merrimack College Smart Growth

As members of the Coalition for Merrimack College Smart Growth, we believe the college, its planners, and the Board of Trustees have not done an adequate job of due diligence or communication to understand the impact that 5 buildings and 350 student beds will have on the surrounding neighborhood and college entrance.  We believe the college has many viable and less egregious sites to grow their student residences. 

Austin Green is the last area of open green on campus.  It allows for a beautiful entrance to the college, as well as a lovely entrance into the town of Andover.  The green, with the mature trees that were hand planted by Fr. Kenny O.S.A., offer students the benefit of a suburban campus setting, which is promoted in Merrimack marketing brochures. Alumni choose to get married at the chapel and have their wedding photos taken on Austin Green. Students use this green daily to play pick-up sports and it is often used by the college as adjunct parking for college events and hockey games. The green also provides a scenic buffer between the college and the residential neighborhood it has respectfully cohabitated with for the last 67 years.

All this is about to be destroyed. 

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We understand the college aspires to grow and become more of a residential college. We support this endeavor.  However, we strongly object to this dorm proposal and its location.

Out of respect for the additional civil service resources this will require from Andover and North Andover the location of these dorms should be reconsidered. There has been no acknowledgement of, or remediation for, the increase in student parking, loading areas, or traffic.  There have been no solutions discussed or offered for the existing sewer and drainage issues that plague the surrounding residences, which are caused by the college and which these dorms will make much worse.  There has been no communication or consideration for the negative impact these dorms will have on our community property values, public safety, and quality of life, as they are literally jammed without buffer into a residential neighborhood. 

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The town and tax-paying residents of Andover and North Andover have always been very good neighbors to the college.  With very little complaint, the neighboring residents have accepted a lot of the inconveniences associated with the college’s students, activities, and events.  This predominantly has been because the current campus design and layout provides a natural buffer between the college and the surrounding neighborhoods.  College students should not be asked to live and play within a quiet family-oriented neighborhood, and a community with families and elderly residents should not be asked to live among student dorms. 

With the destruction of Austin Green and addition of student dorms right on top of our neighborhood, the long-term cooperative and collaborative relationship we have had with the college will be over.

We recognize the college is a vibrant part of the community and we want the college to succeed with its plans to grow and be renowned, but not at the expense of the surrounding neighborhood and community.  Merrimack College itself states in their "Agenda for Distinction" that they aim to place the common good ahead of the individual good and strive for mutual respect and honor among all members of the community.  We believe the current dorm plans could not be more at odds with this statement.

We are asking Merrimack College to go back to their founding member’s Augustinian value set, review the core values of their Agenda for Distinction, relocate their new student dorms elsewhere, and preserve Austin Green.

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