AUBURN – Voters have OK’d a plan to build a new Lake Street Elementary School on Park Avenue.

In a non-binding straw vote held Thursday night, neighborhood residents, parents and Auburn taxpayers approved the project by a vote of 98-4.

“It was a good vote,” said Superintendent Barbara Eretzian. “Its a good site. I really felt it would sell itself.”

The site includes a 9.9-acre parcel owned by Arlyne Sacks and a 1-acre lot owned by Carmen Smith. The properties will give the school system about 8.4 acres of useable land for the school, parking lots and play areas.

Auburn officials started looking for a place to build a new school three months ago after Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the state would not help the city expand the current Lake Street school.

She said the expansion plan was too expensive, the site was too small and the project had too many constraints.

The project has since proven controversial as some residents fought to expand the current school and others pushed to build a new school on a new site. But Thursday’s meeting was relatively calm.

After a 45-minute presentation by school officials and project architects, a handful of audience members asked about the site’s development, project costs and the future of the current Lake Street school.

“We will use the building. We don’t want the building to sit vacant,” said Eretzian, who said she’d like the old brick building to be used for preschool students and before-and-after school care.

Two of the most outspoken audience members were Davis Avenue residents whose properties sit next to the site.

Steve Fortier said his home now abuts a wilderness filled with deer and some endangered animals. The proposal presented Thursday called for tearing that down and replacing it with a small concrete play area.

“That’s not what I signed up for,” he said.

Don Crocker, a parent and Davis Avenue resident, said he was most concerned about the safety of children who will walk through the hilly area. He was also worried that rushing parents will leave their kids at the end of his street and tell them to walk to school rather than brave the busy dropoff area assigned to them at the front of the school.

“You telling me that’s not going to happen?” he asked Eretzian. “It will happen.”

Both men voted against the site selection.

Most others at the meeting voted for it, saying they were simply happy to have a school within the Lake Street neighborhood.

“I would have been happy (expanding) Lake Street at its current site, but I want a neighborhood school,” said Laurie Tannenbaum, who lives on Lake Street and whose two young sons attend the school.

Sissi Ventrone, a Little Orchard Court resident, said she definitely preferred the new site over the old one.

“It’s large enough. There’s enough playground. They don’t have to knock down houses,” she said. “I could be totally supportive of this project.”

Auburn now must get site approval from the State Board of Education. Officials are expected to meet with the board in April.

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