January 13, 2022

Phil Hanlon, President;

Richard Mills, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer;

Joshua Keniston, Vice President of Campus Services and Institutional Projects;

Frank Roberts, Associate Vice-President, Facilities Operations and Management; and

Members of the Dartmouth Planning Committee

Dartmouth College and its neighbors who live near the Garipay Fields and the Practice Course have a long, symbiotic relationship. We, Dartmouth’s neighbors, share Daniel Webster’s “love” of the school, its land, and traditions. And we want to see Dartmouth continue to grow and thrive.

Therefore, we were taken aback in October when we learned that Dartmouth was considering development on land east of Lyme Road. Such an action seems to be in opposition to the long-term vision laid out just months earlier in Dartmouth’s Strategic Master Plan, which was intended to “guide the institution’s development for the next 30 years.”

The news of the potential development on this land was so concerning that more than 100 Hanover residents came together to form the Garipay Neighborhood Association (GNA), an organization committed to preserving this special place while continuing to support Dartmouth.

The GNA met in early January to discuss its members’ concerns, which largely fell into two buckets: Environmental Impact and Community Disruption. The specifics below include but are not limited to:

Environmental Impact

• The potential disruption to water drainage and wetland area around Garipay and South along Girl Brook;
• Threat to wildlife corridors and habitat in an area where native plants are already threatened by invasive species; and
• Additional pollution from the transportation that would shuttle students back and forth to campus.

Community Disruption

Undergraduate student life will likely not mesh well with this residential area far from the college center. The disruptions it will introduce into the community include, but are not limited to,

• Noise between 9:00 pm and 5:00 am;
• Increased traffic to and from main campus during crucial periods of each day, which will create obstacles for Hanover’s first responders who are stationed along Lyme Road, as well as to and from the Ray School and Francis Richmond School;