The school is located in Waitsfield's commercial lodging district on Route 100 just north of the Warren town line.
Yestermorrow is a nonconforming use in the district and any expansion of a nonconforming use requires review under the conditional use criteria and approval from the Waitsfield Development Review Board.
FORMAL APPLICATION
The project calls for building a 4,000-square-foot shop building and two residential cabins. Members of the Yestermorrow board discussed the proposal informally last fall and in February presented a formal application.
The shop and cabins are part of a longer-term school expansion project. The shop will be about 25 feet west and south of the existing building and will consist of two shops. It will have 3,000 square feet of enclosed space and 1,000 square feet of a covered outdoor work area (COW).
The project calls for an existing 10-by-20-foot cabin to be placed on a foundation and the construction of an insulated cabin to house 12 to 16 students, with a kitchen and bathrooms.
SEPTIC CAPACITY
At that February meeting, the DRB discussed landscape screening, lighting, setbacks, septic capacity and road access to the new shop.
Board chair Brian Shupe also asked Yestermorrow board chair Mac Rood to explain what the expansion means. Rood said it would allow the school to offer more classes simultaneously, provide additional shop space and increase the number of students who could be accommodated at the school at one time from 25-30 to 45-55.
The DRB reviewed the project under conditional use criteria and found it met all of them. The permit included several conditions, including a request for detailed building plans and a landscaping and lighting plan.
Yestermorrow moved to its current location from Warren Village in 1991. At the time it received a condition use permit as a school with student boarding. A change in the zoning regulations changed the definition of school to those accredited by the state, which made Yestermorrow a pre-existing, nonconforming use under the current regulations.
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