Dartmo.

Discussions and controversies continue to slow the plan of the friends of Hanover High rowing to turn a part of Fullington Farm into a boating headquarters (Valley News article, Planning Board minutes Sept. 6 (pdf), Valley News article 1, article 2, Friends article).

The Valley News noted on December 16 that the crew was allowed to move in but was denied permission to hold early-morning practices.

The Dartmouth reports on the project, and the Planner has some closer photos. The D also had an article in July. (The Planner’s Office now has not only a blog and website but also a domain name, dartmouthplanning.com.)

Although the dock project includes bank stabilization and plantings, it continues the trend of intensified development on the east bank of the river between the bridge and the canoe club. As recently as 1985, the docks were less noticeable, the bridge was smaller, lower, and much less prominent, and the assertive boathouse was nonexistent.

Instead of maintaining the fiction that this limited site is a part of nature, could it be developed heavily, with a broad granite pedestrian corniche? Let’s promenade on the Ledyard Malecón.

Dartmouth will build a relatively elaborate ADA-compliant swimming dock and a kiosk upstream from the bridge (The Dartmouth).

The College Planner’s blog has a post with a plan (pdf) and a detailed regulatory submission (pdf). This project is part of something bigger: a master plan for the riverfront (Planning post, post).

The Upper Valley seems to have considerable pent-up demand for rowing facilities. UK Architects’ design for a Vermont-side boathouse near the Wilder Dam for the Upper Valley Rowing Foundation appears to be delayed by tax or land-use questions (UVRF minutes September 2008 [pdf]).

At the other end of town, past the Chieftain, the Friends of Hanover High School Rowing purchased Fullington Farm from Dartmouth in 2008 (UVRF minutes May 2008). The group plans to begin rowing there in 2010 (UVRF minutes September 2008 [pdf], Valley News). The Friends’ page on Facebook notes that Toronto architect Daniel Johnson is designing a boathouse.

A lot of river-related planning activity has focused on the Fullington Farm/Chieftain Inn area north of campus recently.

Although the Upper Valley Rowing Foundation seems to have settled on a site closer to Wilder Dam for its future boathouse (design by U.K. Architects), its past meeting minutes have mentioned an interest in buying Fullington Farm, or at least a right to use part of it, from Dartmouth. Now the Friends of Hanover High Crew have signed an agreement with Dartmouth and plan to build a community boathouse on the farm (UVRF May 2008 minutes pdf).

Fullington Farm is the site of the Dartmouth Organic Farm and might be the location of the Lyme Road site that is occasionally proposed as a new home for Thayer School (see 2002 Master Plan, 14 pdf).

At the Chieftain, Black Bear Sculling runs a sculling program. Now the Chieftain is requesting a zoning variance to allow a private club on the property (Zoning Board of Adjustment July 10, 2008 pdf). The zoning board minutes do not indicate the purpose of the club or whether it has anything to do with rowing.

The boathouse of the Upper Valley Rowing Club, formerly the Dresden Rowing Club, is projected to open this year near the Wilder Dam. It appears in a rendering by U.K. Architects of Hanover.

The Connecticut Valley Spectator wrote on the club’s growth, reprinted in Rowing News.

[01.24.2007 link to firm's site added.]

Changes in the architecture of rowing are in the works: the Fuller Boathouse will be renovated and expanded with a second level (Women’s Crew, Valley News, ivyleaguesports.com) and the Dresden Rowing Club is planning to build a two-bay frame boathouse and a dock on land it owns in Norwich, a few miles upriver from Dartmouth’s Boathouse (Valley News).