One Public, One Private—

P&Z Considers Two Educational Uses For New Commercial Building

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) is considering two individual applications for separate educational uses of a 7,500-square-foot commercial building that is now under construction in a business zone at 7 Berkshire Road (Route 34), near Newtown High School.

The public school system wants to use 2,500 square feet of the building for its alternative high school program, which places about 15 high-school-age students in a small setting for instruction. Newtown High School has about 1,600 students.

Seven Berkshire, LLC/Little Explorers Child Development Center, LLC wants to use 5,000 square feet of the building for a private preschool child day care center, which would serve up to 80 small children.

The one-story building now being constructed at 7 Berkshire Road is the fourth of a series of commercial buildings to be built in that area during the past several years. The site lies across Berkshire Road from the high school’s new athletic field complex. The P&Z approved construction of the commercial building in June 2003.

To allow the alternative high school to locate in the new building, the public school system is seeking P&Z approval for a “public school” as a permitted land use in a commercial building smaller than 10,000 square feet in a B-3 (Business) zone. Public schools typically are located in public buildings.

At an August 19 P&Z public hearing, School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff told P&Z members that the students attending the alternative high school are those who would not do well in Newtown High School with its 1,600 students. The alternative high school program currently has about 15 students and is expected to grow to about 25 students as the general student population increases across time, he said.

“These are kids with special needs,” Dr Pitkoff said.

The alternative high school program was located in Canaan House at Fairfield Hills until last April, when a nighttime explosion and fire heavily damaged the space used there by the program. The program then relocated to the basement of Newtown Middle School on Queen Street.

Newtown Middle School is not a good location for the alternative high school, Dr Pitkoff told P&Z members.

The building at 7 Berkshire Road is across the street from Newtown High School, making it a better place for the alternative education program, he said.

The program employs two teachers. A shuttle bus would be used for student transportation to the high school. Only a small amount of vehicle parking would be needed, Dr Pitkoff said.

Using the commercial building would be a long-term solution for the alternative high school’s space needs, he said. During the coming decade, the high school population is projected to grow from 1,600 to 2,000 students, and consequently the alternative high school enrollment would grow, he said. “Certainly, we need this [alternative high school] permanently as a program,” he said.

Questions

P&Z member Lilla Dean, however, questioned whether the town should rent commercial space in a private building for a public school. “Is rental space the way to go?” she asked.

The superintendent responded that no other suitable facilities for the program are available in public buildings.

P&Z Chairman William O’Neil said the P&Z has sought to keep schools from occupying commercial space to allow such space to be used by businesses, which would pay town property taxes.

Approving the public schools’ application would mark the first time the P&Z would allow a public school in a commercial building, he said. Mr O’Neil asked why the alternative high school should be located in a commercial area instead of a noncommercial area.

Dr Pitkoff responded the commercial building is near Newtown High School and is an appropriate location for the alternative education program. “For our purposes, it’s perfect,” he said. Students would arrive for classes at the same time that Newtown High School students arrive, he said.

Ms Dean said the town owns some houses on the Fairfield Hills campus that could be used for the alternative high school.

School Business Manager Ronald Bienkowski said that those houses are not handicapped-accessible.  

The school system would pay property taxes to the town through its lease with the commercial building’s owner, he said.

Mr O’Neil responded that the town would, in effect, be paying taxes to itself, instead of receiving tax revenue from a privately owned business located in that commercial space.

If the school system enters a lease with the commercial building’s owner, it would be in the form of a “triple net” lease. Under such arrangements, the tenant covers rent, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and utility expenses that arise from the use of the property.

Resident Ruby Johnson of 16 Chestnut Hill Road told P&Z members she dislikes the idea of the school system renting commercial space for a public school because it amounts to a short-term solution for a long-term space need.

“I don’t think this represents long-term planning. I think it’s a bad start. I see it as a short-term solution,” she said.

Ms Johnson recommended that the alternative high school be housed in town facilities at Fairfield Hills. She suggested renovating Stratford Hall there for school use.

Resident Gary Tannenbaum of 36 Pond Brook Road that the money spent on renting commercial space would be better spent on renovating space for a school at Fairfield Hills. Having a school there also would inject some public activity into that area, he said.

School Board Chairman Elaine McClure said of the alternative high school’s space needs, “We have a problem we need to solve now.” Neither Newtown High School nor Newtown Middle School are suitable places for the alternative school, she said. There are some physical liabilities with placing the alternative program at Fairfield Hills, she said.

The school system would enter a five-year lease with the commercial building’s owner, she said. The alternative high school would begin the school year in its current quarters at the middle school and then move when the commercial space is completed, she said.  

Mr O’Neil suggested that the school system use a portable classroom positioned near the high school for the alternative education program.

Ms Dean suggested that the school system rent space in the Newtown Congregational Church’s new church house on West Street for the alternative school.

“We’re really concerned about…taking commercial space out of the commercial realm,” Ms Dean said. 

“It seems like there’s three or four avenues you could have explored” other than locating the alternative high school in new commercial space, Ms Dean said.

Mr O’Neil said he expects that P&Z members will decide on the school system’s request to allow a public school in the commercial building at the September 2 P&Z meeting.

Day Care Application

The P&Z also is considering a proposal from Seven Berkshire, LLC/Little Explorers Child Development Center, LLC to modify the zoning regulations to allow a 5,000-square-foot child day care center as a permitted use in the new commercial building under construction at 7 Berkshire Road.

During the public school system’s presentation on its request for an alternative high school in that building, Dr Pitkoff said that the two uses would be compatible within the same building.

Twenty-four vehicle parking spaces would be designated for the day care center’s use. Up to 80 children would use the facility. They would be dropped off by their parents in the morning and picked up by them in the evening. The center would be open from 7:30 am to 6:15 pm.

Heather Kerekes of 6 Strawberry Lane, who would run the day care center, told P&Z members at an August 19 public hearing that children would be dropped off in the morning between 7:45 and 9 am, after Newtown High School has started its classes at 7:30 am.

The area near the high school is heavily congested with commuter traffic and high school-related traffic on school day mornings.

Ms Dean said that existing traffic flow in the area is troublesome, adding that it would be difficult for parents who have dropped off their children in the mornings to make a left turn out onto Berkshire Road from the day care center parking lot.

Attorney Robert Hall, representing the applicant, said traffic high school-related traffic would not affect the day care center because the high school operates on a different schedule.

Mr O’Neil pointed out that westbound traffic on Berkshire Road approaching the high school at times backs up for a mile.

Morning traffic tieups in the area could make for frustrated parents who are dropping off children at a day care center, P&Z member Robert Mulholland said.

Mr O’Neil asked how the presence of a day care center would affect existing congested traffic conditions in the Berkshire Road-Wasserman Way area. Mr O’Neil noted that motorists seeking to reach Interstate 84’s Exit 10 area via Sandy Hook Center now cause traffic backups on westbound Washington Avenue. If a child day care center operates at capacity, parents who are waiting to drop off their children could cause traffic backups on Berkshire Road, he said. A day care center would cause a substantial increase in traffic in the area, he said.

Mr Mulholland pointed out that Reed Intermediate School at Fairfield Hills generates traffic that flows on Wasserman Way and Berkshire Road

Mr Hall responded that traffic from that school would not affect the day care center.

Mr O’Neil asked for details on vehicle queuing and how a day care parking lot would function during child drop-off times. He suggested that a traffic control agent be used in the mornings to direct traffic flow arriving at the day care center.

P&Z member Robert Poulin said that the traffic statistics presented to the P&Z with the day care application are based on traffic research from 1999. Mr Poulin urged that new traffic studies be performed to measure traffic flow in that area from 6:30 to 9:30 am on school days. Mr Poulin said it is difficult to use old traffic information to interpret current traffic conditions.

“What is this [additional] traffic going to do to [traffic conditions on] Route 34?” he asked.

Traffic engineer Irving Chann of Wilton, representing the applicant, responded there would be very little effect.

After discussion, Mr Hall said the applicant will present newly researched traffic information to the P&Z for its review in considering the application.

The public hearing on the day care center application is scheduled to resume on September 16.