Photo by Marney Simon | Enterprise Staff
The empty lot across from the Plainfield Fire Station on 135th St. is the future site of a new daycare and early childhood education center. The Plainfield Planning Commission has asked the petitioners from Primrose School to consider altering the entrance to the school, to not risk cars backing up in front of the fire house.
By Marney Simon | Enterprise Staff
A variation in design for a proposed daycare and early childhood center has now moved that plan to the full village board.
Representatives from the Primrose School came before the Plan Commission on Jan. 17, with some revamped plans from their original proposal back in December.
The daycare center is seeking to build in the Meijer outlot along 135th Street.
But last month, commissioners had concerns about the entrance to the new center, worried that cars lining up to turn into the daycare could be problematic for nearby emergency services.
The applicant is seeking a special use permit for the school, to develop the vacant, 2.74-acre site with a single-story, 11,550 square-foot child care facility.
However, the entrance from 135th Street, which had been created by the original planned unit development plan, created a left turn lane that might cause cars to accidentally block the fire station across the street.
After talking with the village and the fire department, the plan was revised to realign the entrance with the fire station, creating an intersection.
The new plan made no changes to the ultimate site plan for adding the new building.
“The plan does not really change anything at all… if anything, it actually strengthens the applicants case for a special use permit,” said Associate Planner Andrew Bogda. “The main driveway for the development parking lot now snakes around the north side of the building to meet the fire district access point.”
Bogda said that some modifications were made in the parking lot to accommodate the new entrance, creating a total of 49 parking spaces for the site.
However, there were still some concerns, as those 49 spaces fall below the village requirement of 61 spaces for a building of that size.
“They figure, we don’t need all the parking. Well, I didn’t sit on the committee that decides the parking, but I figure they probably have long discussions about various groups and various sizes of buildings, and they came up with [61 spaces], and we’re going to give 49 instead of 61,” said Commissioner John Renzi. “Wouldn’t there have to be a waiver? If they need the extra spaces, I’m thinking we should have a procedure in place where we can make the independent determination.”
But other commissioners said the plan seemed appropriate, due to testimony from the applicant that daycare facilities often have multiple children attend from one family, reducing the amount of parking sites needed at their buildings. Primrose School representatives told the board that of their 340 schools nationwide, only a handful have more than 46 parking spaces. Those spaces, representatives said, were generally unused.
“I think the world is over parked,” said Commissioner Andrew Heinen. “We get so concerned about parking, but all we’re doing is adding impervious area and creating more storm water run-off for our rivers, so I think this is appropriate… I think this plan is a ton better than what you had before, just from an access and transportation perspective.”
The commission voted to forward the recommendation to approve the site plan to the full village board.
Primrose Schools is a national childhood education center chain, with four schools in the Chicago metro area.
The Plainfield school will serve approximately 184 children, ages infants through kindergarten.