The Hillsborough Planning Board unanimously approved an informal hearing for the proposed construction of school childcare center.
Matthew Taylor, the development project manager for Primrose Schools, presented the conceptual plan for the proposed school building prior to it being fully engineered.
Taylor said the proposed school facility will have the capacity for approximately 195 children with potentially 20-22 teachers and staff at full occupancy.
According to the board meeting’s minutes, a representative from the company said the proposal is to develop the wooded three-acre property with an 11,850 sq. foot facility with 49 parking spaces to the south of the building and access to Falcon Road at the corner of the southeastern corner of the property.
The minutes from that December meeting reported that the company’s proposed location for the facility was selected given it allows the greatest distance from Opie Road to allow maximum queueing in the left-turn lane at the signal and provides full movement in and out of the parking field.
A traditional layout for the building and parking was said to be laid out to allow the parking and drop-off to be separated from the school and its amenities. The proposed playgrounds are situated around the perimeter of the school, west, north and east.
As the building’s proposed layout currently stands, the representative from the company said that it comes into complications with a variance from a 75-foot maximum front yard, which would require variance to highlight a residential zone to the east.
The required buffer is 60 feet, according to township officials, but representatives from the company said they came up with an alternative layout as well.
The representative pointed out the building’s elevation is proposed to be risen as well by approximately five to six feet with imported fill to allow positive drainage to the south into a conveyance system, which would require retaining walls to be constructed.
The representative said that they recognize the need to buffer the wall and activity of the school along the perimeter from the residential zone to the east.
After the company representative asked the board members for feedback, the board cross-examined the company reps with multiple questions pertaining to the building’s entrance design and point of access as well as numerous questions regarding the age ranges of the children to attend this proposed school and discussed various safety concerns and precautions.
Once the board expressed its key points of focus on conditional aspects of the property pertaining to buffer zones, parking, a traffic study, stormwater drainage and the raised site plan for this project, Hillsborough Township Committeeman Frank DelCore asked if the company reps if they had an idea as to when a formal application might be submitted.
According to the company’s representative, they are hoping to submit an application early this year.