AUBURN – The city’s newest elementary school has won approval from the Auburn Planning Board, although it will be slightly smaller for financial reasons.

The 300-student, three-story school will be built on 10 acres on Park Avenue. The design calls for 17 classrooms, office space and a middle-school-size gym. Although the building will be three stories tall, architects have designed it to be built on the side of a hill, making the building appear only two stories from the back.

The Planning Board, which has been working with school officials on the project for months, gave final approval to the school Tuesday night. Although they OK’d the plan, members recommended that school officials add more greenery to the east side to buffer lights and noise for those neighbors. They also recommended that the school build a sidewalk on its part of Park Street and work to upgrade the Orchard Street sewer line.

School system Business Manager Jude Cyr said the school officials would meet all of the board’s recommendations. He said the school system will also add a traffic light to the corner of Court and Park streets after a traffic engineer said it would help elevate traffic problems.

Designs for the 44,000-square-foot school will change little with the Planning Board’s recommendations. However, the footprint of the building will be a couple thousand square feet smaller than first planned, Cyr said, because construction costs are rising and the school system needs to stay within budget. The reduction will not result in the loss of any rooms or facilities, Cyr noted.

Because the school will be built in a residential zone, it needed Planning Board approval as a special exemption, said City Planner David Galbraith.

The school project will now go to the State Board of Education for approval of phase one of construction. The site work will go out to bid in the next couple of weeks. School officials expect to meet with Park Street neighbors in a few weeks to discuss the latest design and talk about any concerns they have with the project.

The new school will replace the current Lake Street Elementary School. It will serve students from kindergarten through grade six.