Board OKs new Montessori day care
A planned day care in Upper Gwynedd has gotten a go-ahead.
The township’s commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a request for the proposed day care, subject to a long list of conditions they’ll have to meet.
“I would like to make a motion to approve the conditional use application submitted by applicant ‘Upper Gwynedd Equities LLC,’ for the operation of a day care use,” said commissioner Denise Hull.
The approval will allow the daycare use for “up to 126 children supervised by 22 full-time, and one part-time, adult staff members, in building A, on the property located at 467 Sumneytown Pike, subject to the following conditions,” she said.
After roughly three years
discussion, the commissioners voted in August 2019 to approve a project on the northeast corner of Sumneytown Pike and Church Road, for a Royal Farms fuel station and restaurant on the corner and two retail buildings behind. The new buildings will replace a former Giant supermarket built as a Genuardi’s in 1977, which was closed in 2015 and town down in early 2021.
As the Royal Farms was built and opened this spring, the developer showed the latest plans for that site in April from representatives of Higher Ground Education, a California-based company proposing to run a “Guidepost Montessori at Upper Gwynedd” school in one of the two new retail buildings. Those talks continued in May, with several hours of talks and public presentations on the traffic impact, land use, security and parking aspects of the plans.
Hull read the motion at the start of the land planning and zoning approval items during Tuesday night’s commissioners meeting, detailing a four-page list of conditions written up by township special counsels Jim Garrity and Scott Denlinger, and included in the board’s meeting materials packet for that night.
Conditions listed in the approval include that the daycare “shall at all times” be licensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or any state agency in charge of doing so, and that the daycare give a copy of that license to the township.
“Copies of any violation notices, no matter how minor, shall be immediately provided to the township,” Hull said, as must a notification of “the lapse, termination, or expiration of state licensure, and daycare operations shall immediately case in such event until the proper licensure is reestablished.”
Talks during the approval process also focused on truck deliveries to the daycare, and potential conflicts with parents dropping off their kids. Those are also addressed in the conditions for approval, which state that any deliveries “to all tenants on the property” will be prohibited between 7 to 10 a.m. and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays.
Hours of operation for the daycare will be limited to 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays, and “no routine night or weekend use of the daycare shall be permitted” except with approval from the commissioners. Any special events hosted by the daycare must be limited to one age group at a time, must secure approval beforehand from the township, must have at least 30 minutes between each age group, and must maintain the same student to teacher ratio as indoors.
The daycare also must designate at least 22 parking spaces for staff, 14 for pickup and drop-off of students, and those areas must be posted east and south of the daycare respectively, as per talks during the public hearings.
“There shall be no curbside drop-off or pickup, and no queuing of any vehicles for the daycare,” Hull said, and busing of students to and from the site is also not allowed, without permission from the board. During all open hours, the building shall be secured with an employee monitoring all entrances and exits, and a playground at the north side of the daycare must be fenced “with a solid vinyl, reasonably un-climbable fence,” Hull said.
Further conditions include that the playground fence must include emergency panic bars that can be opened from the inside, that the daycare install bollards between the playground and parking area, and that all landscaping and stormwater facilities must be installed as per final permits and building plans submitted to the township. Sidewalks are also required to and from the parking area and front entrance.
After reading the terms and conditions, Hull added that the township manager, assistant manager, and special conflict solicitor will “prepare a formal written decision” within 45 days, as required by township and state codes.
Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners next meet at 7 p.m. on Aug. 9 at the township administration building, 1 Parkside Place. For more information visit www.UpperGwynedd.org.