WATERVILLE — The Planning Board on Monday approved final plans for a $200 million, 350,000-square-foot athletic complex at Colby College that college officials say will have the first Olympic-size swimming pool in the state.
The board voted 7-0 to approve the plans with conditions, including that the board receive a letter of approval from the city’s fire chief, David LaFountain, as well as a traffic movement permit from the state Department of Transportation.
The complex would be built on Campus Drive, diagonally across the street from Johnson Pond, and is expected to be the largest in the New England Small College Athletic Conference, which includes Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Hamilton, Trinity, Williams, Amherst and Connecticut colleges, as well as Wesleyan and Tufts universities.
The building is expected to be ready for occupancy in 2020, after which the current Alfond Athletic Center would be demolished to create green space that will be completed in 2021, according to Mina Amundsen, Colby’s assistant vice president for facilities and campus planning.
“We propose to start in summer, so we hope to be in the ground in August,” Amundsen told the board.
She said the design is environmentally sensitive and wetlands are being kept intact as part of the project.
The building will have a landscaped courtyard that is open to the sky.
Stephen Mohr of Mohr & Seredin Landscape Architects Inc., of Portland, who was present Monday, said at a recent meeting that the building will be on 30 acres, 27.5 of which already are developed, so only 2.6 acres will change as a result of the new development.
The building will have an indoor competition center with a 200-meter track and a multilevel, 13,500-square-foot fitness center that will be available for use by the community, region and state. It will be among the best Division III facilities in the country, according to Colby officials.
A gymnasium, 50-meter swimming pool, squash and aquatic centers, hockey arena, studios, training rooms and coaching suites are part of the plan.
Amy Calder can be contacted at 861-9247 or at:
acalder@centralmaine.com
Twitter: AmyCalder17
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