St. Andrew's Gets OK From Councilors, Neighbors for Tennis Courts

St. Andrew’s School can build new tennis courts – and nothing but tennis courts – with the blessing of the Barrington Town Council and the neighbors who agreed to the courts with some conditions.

The councilors voted 5-0 Monday night, July 15, for a conditional zoning change that gives St. Andrew’s officials what they wanted at the north end of the playing fields off of Federal Road.

But they got the zone change only after signing off on an agreement with neighbors on nearby Winsor Drive and County Road to make significant changes to their plans that improves the runoff of water from the courts – the neighbors’ primary concern.

The conditions agreed to by the neighbors came after the Conservation Commission reviewed the tennis court proposal at its meeting last week at the request of the Town Council at its July 1 meeting.

The conditions worked out at that meeting included enhancing the swail to handle discharge, replacing 100 feet of pipe in a crushed stone trench, making changes to an existing drain, and adding plants to the east of the site to block the view from backyards.

Those conditions were agreed to by the neighbors yesterday morning, July 15, said attorney Arlene Violet.

The change from an R-25 residential to an R-E recreational zone came after St. Andrew’s officials also agreed on Monday night that the tennis courts would be used only for tennis and no other recreational purposes.

St. Andrew's had previously agreed to not light the courts, build no backboards, plant trees elsewhere on campus for the trees to be cut down while limiting the number to be felled, and not disturb nearby wetlands when the courts are constructed.