The Waterville Planning Board is expected Tuesday to consider a request by the school department to rezone part of the Waterville Junior High School property at 100 West River Road to build a 10,000-square-foot storage facility on school property. Above, the junior high school’s front entrance, photographed last October. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel file

WATERVILLE — The Planning Board is expected Tuesday to consider a request by the Waterville Public Schools to rezone part of the school property at 100 West River Road to build a 10,000-square-foot storage facility.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at The Elm at 21 College Ave. Those wanting to view the meeting remotely can use a link on the agenda, which will be on the city’s website — waterville-me.gov — under “Planning Department.”

The school department is expected to ask the Planning Board to consider recommending the City Council rezone part of the Waterville Junior High School property on West River Road from Resource Protection to Residential-B.

The storage building would be used for school furniture and other equipment that has been removed from city schools to allow for social distancing during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Planning Board does not have authority to rezone property, but can make recommendations to the council, which has authority to rezone land.

“The Planning Board holds the public hearing and recommends back to the council,” City Planner Ann Beverage said Monday. “The council has to vote twice at two different meetings, and then the school has to come back to the Planning Board for final approval.”

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The Planning Board would consider the school’s plans for the storage facility under the city’s site plan review ordinance, according to Beverage.

The storage facility, to be funded with federal COVID-19 relief money, would be built to the north of the parking lot, on the left as one enters the junior high school driveway.

The schools plan to begin building the facility immediately if it receives Planning Board approval.

The schools also plan to build a $6.12 million addition to Waterville Junior High School for fourth- and fifth-graders from Albert S. Hall School, who are expected to begin attending the junior high next year. The addition also would also be built with federal COVID-19 relief money.

In other matters, the Planning Board is expected to consider a final plan by Cleantap Energy to build a solar farm between Eight Rod Road and Punky Lane.

Also, the city is expected to request a revision to the zoning ordinance to allow solar farms in the Airport District. The change would allow developers to expand solar farms on airport property and build additional solar farms, without rezoning, at city-owned Robert LaFleur Municipal Airport.

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