S.B. has its own learning experience with application
Plans to build The Learning Experience day care finally approved
BY CHRIS MURINO Staff Writer

SOUTH BRUNSWICK- A revised application to build a day-care facility and office building on Route 1 received approval from the Planning Board onMay 7.

Gautam Partners had appeared before the board twice, but the board had many concerns about the application that would build The Learning Experience day-care facility along with some office space. The revised application seemed to alleviate these concerns, according to most of the board members.

There were four main concerns the board had discussed in previous meetings.

The first was parking: "the flat out number of spaces, the circulation [of the lot] and concern over the parking stall sizes," said Ronald Shimanowitz, the lawyer representing Gautam Partners.

Charles Witczak, an engineer and planner, said the design of the parking lot was changed so that there could be circulation. In other words, no one would have to make a U-turn in order to leave the lot.

They were also able to increase the amount of spaces in the lot.

"It's an increase of approximately 13 [day-care] spaces," Witczak said.

The second concern dealt with the building having two shared uses: the child-care center and office use on part of the second floor, and both uses having shared entrances.

"There will be separate entrances," said Matthew Jarmel, architect of the property. "There will be three stairs in the building.We added a third dedicated stair just for the child-care center - it's not a shared stair. The elevator will have a front and rear door. It will only be used by one use at a time.We're clearly separating the uses within the building."

The third problem was the front yard setback variance. There needed to be a 100-foot setback from Route 1, and in the original application this was not fulfilled.

"The previous property had a 19,000- square-foot building," Jarmel said. "We reduced the size of the building to 17,500 square feet. Not only have we reduced the size, we moved it significantly back on the site."

"Now we have a 161-foot setback," Witczak said.

The fourth concern was about where children would go in case of an emergency.

"We tried to find a reasonable space where a child could stand," Witczak said. "There's an area of about 2,090 square feet that you'd need [to have enough room for all of the kids.]"

They will use a lawn behind the building that is not maintained to keep the children safe in an emergency, Witczak said.

The outdoor playground area of the site was reduced from 5,005 square feet to 3,250 square feet, which at first, created a bit of opposition from the board.

"Our firm does all The Learning Experience [TLE] centers," Jarmel said. "The ideal playground size that TLE likes is about 5,000 square feet. There's just less run-around space [with the 3,250-squarefoot size.]

The application was approved by a vote of 8 to 1. Barry Nathanson was the lone dissenting voter.

"I still have major concerns with the day-care center on the second floor," he said.

Others were happy with the changes.

"I am very happy with the changes you made," said board member Charlotte Camarota. "It was a horrible plan before, but you made a lot of good changes."

"I commend the applicant for making an effort to listen to what the board is saying," said Mayor Frank Gambatese.