WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A mini population explosion brought Williams College before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday.

 

The college asked the town to approve a temporary modular addition to the school's children's center on Whitman Street.

 

"The college is experiencing a baby boom," Williams Director of Real Estate and Legal Affairs Jamie Art told the ZBA. "That, I think, bodes well for the town.

 

"The center is outgrowing its capacity for faculty and staff, especially in infant care."

 

The center, which serves the families of Williams faculty and staff, offers full-day care and education for children ages 6 weeks through preschool and an after-school program for elementary school-aged children.

 

When space is available, the college makes slots available to the general public, but right now it is bursting at the seams, Art explained.

 

"There will be an addition of 16 kids and six new employees," he said. "It is unclear now whether this is a temporary boom or whether this will be a long-standing demographic trend, which is the reason to install a modular for a time and to have the college and Children's Center address its needs."

 

Members of the ZBA asked Art why the college did not just build a permanent addition and, at some point down the road, have more capacity for the families of non-employees.

 

Art said the school has an immediate need and wants to take the time to consider its long-term options.

 

While childcare is not, strictly speaking, part of the college's mission, it is a service the school needs to supply in order to competitively recruit faculty and staff, he told the board.

 

"Part of the challenge is what are these families going to do in town if they want to have kids and there are two people employed out of the home," Art said. "It's a real challenge."

 

And the college will be doing a lot of faculty recruitment in the next few years, he said.

 

"The bigger picture is the college is in the process in its recruitment trajectory, especially as there's an aging population of professors nearing retirement," Art said. "They're looking over the course of the next five or six years or so — just in replacing retiring faculty members — that they will need to replace something like 30 percent of their faculty. That means 5 percent of the tenure track professors each year for five or six years.

 

"This is a great thing for town. This is new folks moving to town. This is people in the demographic the town is trying to attract. It's new kids in the school system."

 

The college asked for permission to amend the site plan it filed when it built the Children's Center to allow for the temporary building for a period of seven years.

 

Some members of the ZBA balked at the idea that seven years is "temporary" and suggested a shorter timetable.

 

"Do we absolutely need seven years? I'm not going to tell you we do," Art said. "In that seven-year period, the college will evaluate the need and come up with a plan … then plan for an addition off the back end of the Children's Center."

 

"You don't think you'd have a better sense of the need in three years?" ZBA Chairman Andrew Hoar asked.

 

Art replied that he would be a comfortable with a five-year window for the evaluation and, if needed, permitting of a new permanent space at the center.

 

The board voted, 5-0, to approve the temporary structure for five years, after which the college could seek an extension or remove the modular building.