MARION — Two weeks after plans for a Tabor Academy Student Center were stalled by the Panning Board over an insufficient number of parking spaces and electric car charging stations, the board voted unanimously to approve the 22,750 square foot building.

The Student Center will double as a library and replace the school’s current Hayden library. It will also include student life, the office of diversity and inclusion and academic support services on the second story.

Designed by Saltonstall Architects, the building will be 35 feet tall — just below the maximum allowed by the town.

Plans for the student center were stalled at a March 1 Planning Board meeting, where members Chris Collings and Eileen Marum voted against the plan in a vote that needed a five-of-seven supermajority. With Collings and Marum’s nays, alongside an abstention from Board Chair Will Saltonstall, owner of Saltonstall architects, approval of the site plan was denied.

While the originally proposed lot had 50 parking spaces — two more than the current parking lot — it fell short of the 58 spaces required by town bylaws.

At the March 1 meeting, architect Tristan DeBarros argued that the current lot is underutilized by Tabor students and staff, and a special permit should be granted to allow plans to continue with 50 spots.

After the original plans were denied, DeBarros presented new plans for the site, including space for eight parking spots connected to the lot’s access road which would be implemented if usage of the parking lot exceeds its current usage.

In addition, the new plans included a view of two electric charging stations in the student center parking lot, which were promised by Tabor Interim President Julie Salit at the March 1 meeting.

“I’m quite pleased that we have two spaces available for for electric vehicles, and I suspect that they will be used and Tabor will have to expand the amount available,” Marum said.

DeBarros noted that the school is evaluating the campus for places to put further electric charging stations.

“I say bravo to the applicant and their team for finding a way to meet the concerns of the Town of Marion,” Collings said.

The board voted unanimously to approve the site plans.

But before the meeting’s close, Daniel took time to address a letter to the editor from Selectman John Waterman, criticizing the Planning Board’s handling of the site plans at the March 1 meeting.

“I’m speaking for myself now, not as a member of the Planning Board,” Daniel said. “I think the article was a little misleading.”

In Waterman’s letter, he wrote that Tabor’s plans were being unnecessarily scrutinized by the Planning Board, and that — if the school had wanted to — it could have used the Dover Amendment, a state law which exempts educational entities from certain zoning restrictions, circumventing the Planning Board.

Daniel expressed concern that an elected official would encourage Tabor to go around the Planning Board, noting that the board was asking for the minimum number of parking spaces required by bylaws and that many other site plans have undergone far longer review processes.

He also noted that he wanted to express his response to Waterman’s letter in person, and not in the press. Waterman was present at the March 1 meeting, which was held over Zoom, but his camera was turned off throughout Daniel’s speech.

“Marion is the only town that I see — and I’ve seen it multiple times now — where elected officials run to the paper to talk about other elected officials,” Daniel said.