P&Z Approves Montessori School At Gordon Fraser Site

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has approved the Newtown Montessori Society’s request to use the former Gordon Fraser Gallery at 173 South Main Street as the new home of the Newtown Montessori School.

After reviewing plans for converting the former store, office, and warehouse complex into a private school, P&Z members unanimously approved the conversion project. The school is now located in cramped quarters in Dodgingtown.

Attorney James Mannion, representing the society, told P&Z members the school plans to start using the South Main Street site for the education of 120 students. Eighteen school staff members would work there. In about five years, the school expects to increase its student enrollment to 265, with the presence of 33 staff members, he said.

In the future, as the society’s need for added space in the building evolves, it will return to the P&Z to explain how it will increase its use of the facility and will provide design plans on the increased use, the attorney said.

“I think that it’s an exciting development for the town and I’m looking forward to a great school at that location,” said P&Z member Heidi Winslow. In approving the society’s request for a special exception to the zoning regulations, P&Z members concurred in a motion that the school is a community asset that provides an educational choice for residents; the site is an appropriate location with excellent access to major roads; and the use of the site as a school will not adversely affect the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD) within which the site is located.

Last summer, the P&Z approved a zoning amendment requested by the society which allowed the society to proceed with planning to convert the South Main Street building for school use. That amendment allows private schools as a permitted use in a M-2 Industrial zone, provided that the applicant receives a special exception to the zoning regulations for such a use.

The P&Z’s approving that amendment came in the face of opposition to the proposal from the Economic Development Commission (EDC). EDC members opposed the amendment because they fear the local property tax base will suffer by having a currently taxed industrial building converted for use as a non-taxable school. The current owners of the South Main Street property pay about $43,000 in annual property taxes. The school has an option to buy the property for $2.1 million.

In approving that amendment, P&Z members decided that private schools are a community benefit which provide an educational choice for residents and enhance the local quality of life. P&Z members decided that the benefits of having the school at the South main Street site outweigh the loss of property tax revenue.

 About 100 Montessori parents and students turned out for a public hearing last summer to support the school’s request for the zoning amendment.

Myriam Woods, head of the Montessori School, has told the P&Z the school had sought a residential area to which to relocate the school for about a decade, but never found a suitable site.

The school had sought to relocate to a site off Route 302 in Bethel, near the Newtown town line, but those plans fell through.  Also, Montessori had investigated the possibility of relocating to Watertown Hall at Fairfield Hills.