On Sept. 27, the College announced its intentions to construct a housing project for 250 to 300 undergraduate students on 25 West Wheelock Street, while the North End housing project on Lyme Road would transition from undergraduate to graduate student living facility.
These changes came days after President Sian Leah Beilock pledged to make more student housing a major goal of her administration — pledging to add 1,000 beds for students, faculty and staff over the next decade. The recent updates to campus housing policy come after years of student advocacy and the passage of a May 2022 zoning amendment.
The planned undergraduate student housing complex on West Wheelock Street was made possible by a zoning amendment passed during the May 2022 Hanover Town Meeting, Dartmouth Student Government town affairs liaison Nicolás Macri ’24 said. Macri, who helped propose the amendment, said the rule change created a new zoning district called the “Main Wheelock District,” in which the construction of high-density residential buildings is permitted.
“Building high-density housing on West Wheelock Street makes a lot of sense,” Macri said. “Dartmouth owns about a third of the land in the new housing district. If you demolish and rebuild, you can house hundreds and hundreds of people there.”
Selectboard member Jennie Chamberlain said the project, alongside the plans for the Main Wheelock District, would make Hanover a more vibrant and sustainable community.
“With more housing so close to downtown and central campus, the Main Wheelock District could be a wonderful multimodal gateway to our town and campus,” Chamberlain said. “If the residents of the Main Wheelock District could easily walk or bike to Main Street, this would increase the vibrancy in the heart of town and help our local businesses thrive.”
During the fall of 2021, Dartmouth’s housing crisis was “particularly pronounced,” Macri said. As the College planned to fully reopen for the fall term, demand for housing exceeded supply, and 100 students did not have access to on-campus housing going into that term, according to previous reporting by The Dartmouth. The College offered to enter students into a $5000 lottery if they gave up their on-campus housing claim.
Macri said that getting an amendment on the Town Meeting ballot — a process which began in February of 2022 — was “ridiculously easy.” According to the Town of Hanover, any registered voter can write an amendment, which then needs the signatures of 25 voters for the measure to appear on the ballot. Macri said the 2022 amendment was based on a 2015 amendment called West Wheelock Gateway, a zoning ordinance which also sought to allow construction of high-density housing on West Wheelock Street that failed to pass in that year’s Town Meeting.
In early February 2022, then-Student Government Senator David Millman ’23 and Macri made two key changes to the 2015 petition: Raising the height limit for buildings from 50 to 60 feet and increasing the maximum number of adults per unit from five to six adults.
“The intention from the beginning was density,” Macri said. “We increased the occupancy limit and height limit so that more housing could be built.”
When the amendment made it onto the ballot, Macri said it was a “big surprise” for many in Town government that students had come together and organized a major zoning amendment. The Planning Board voted to give the amendment its official endorsement following a public hearing in March 2022.
Macri said he helped to campaign “very heavily” over two months leading up to the May 2022 Town Meeting. During the meeting, the amendment passed with a margin of 210 votes.
“We were ecstatic,” Macri said. “The whole experience really taught us that our collaboration can unlock really big successes in solving the housing crisis.”
The College’s decision to no longer house undergraduates at the planned Lyme Road project came as a direct result of the new Main Wheelock Zoning District, according to previous reporting by The Dartmouth. Former track and cross-country coach Barry Harwick ’77, who was active in organizing alumni and community members, said he worked against housing undergraduates on Lyme Road.
Community members who were in opposition to housing undergraduates on Lyme Road wanted to convey the fact that it was “far more than just a [not-in-my-backyard] situation,” Harwick said. To voice his concerns, Harwick said he held meetings with the College vice president for government and community relations Emma Wolfe, and he helped create a Change.org petition against the Lyme Road project that received over 1,200 signatures.
“A lot of alumni had no idea that the project was going out there,” Harwick said.
Hardwick said people’s reasons for opposing the project varied. Alumni, faculty and staff who were against the project were mostly focused on how it would have housed undergraduates a 30 minute walk from the center of campus, he explained. Hardwick added that shifting the Lyme Road project is better-suited to graduate student living.
“The new administration certainly spent a lot of time looking at the situation,” Harwick said. “I’m very happy that the College came to this conclusion. They have re-steered the ship.”
Having spoken to administrators earlier this year, Harwick said that President Beilock’s goal of 1,000 new beds for both undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff within a decade is “super ambitious” and will involve building and upgrading housing in a range of places.
“The College deserves a great deal of credit for this decision,” Harwick said. “Any time a college president mentions something very specific, they don’t just pull it out of their head. I’m hoping this will be a collaborative effort between the College and the local community.”
In addition, Macri added that the College’s recent announcement could not have happened without months of student advocacy.
“Seeing the College realize the opportunity in the Main Wheelock District for housing is really gratifying and shows the impact of student advocacy,” Macri said. “It shows that getting involved has a very real impact. I can’t stop thinking about coming back in ten or twenty years and having thousands of units of new housing along West Wheelock Street.”
Correction appended (Oct. 23, 9:35 pm): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated an increase in the maximum number of adults per unit, from three to five adults. This article has been updated to reflect the actual change, which was from five to six adults.
A previous version of this article also stated that Beilock pledged to create 1,000 new beds for students on campus. The article has been corrected to reflect that the 1,000 new beds will be created for students, faculty and staff.
Correction Appended (Oct. 26, 4:46 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Millman’s position with DSG in February 2022. The article has been updated.
