P&Z pre-applications from two separate tutoring schools proposed for Old Greenwich initially confused the commission because the language for both was identical on the agenda.
Nevertheless, two separate after-school tutoring businesses are proposed for second floor leased spaces at 200 sound Beach Ave (also known as 13 Arcadia Road) and 33 Arcadia Road in the LBR2 zone.
The two schools propose the same drop off and pick up plan.
The first business, run by Manju Khatri and Praveen Kumar at 200 Sound Beach Ave including 13-27 Arcadia Rd, would specialize in Pre-Algebra, Albegra 1, and Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus, Trigonometry and AP Calculus (AB and BC), Calculus 1, Calculus 2 and Geometry.
The second business is “Poly Ed,” who have operated in Manhattan since 2016 and at 179 Hamilton Ave in Chickahominy for three years, but they propose to move that location to Old Greenwich. Poly Ed specializes in teaching math, coding, robotics, SAT prep, and tutoring in small groups. One goal of the business is to have a robotics team of 4th and 5th graders, derived mainly from the Old Greenwich School.
According to the pre-app narrative for the first business, Mr. Khatri has over 20 years of experience teaching math and is certified. He would be joined in Old Greenwich by a second teacher. Ms Kumar would work as a coordinator and help with administrative activities. Mr. Khatri and the second teacher would teach a maximum of four students in grades 7-12. Hours would be 3:30pm to 9:00pm, Monday to Friday, plus 9:30pm to 5:00pm on Saturday and Sunday.
All students would be dropped off in the parking lot behind 13 Arcadia Road. Cars would proceed out of the parking lot on the path marked with red arrows in the illustration. The back stairwell is lit with floodlights that turn on automatically at dusk. At pick up, a teacher will be present until all students have left or been picked up.
As for parking, parents would not permitted to wait for students in the classroom during group classes and therefore would not be parking on account of their children. There is parking for eight cars behind 13 Arcadia Road, which is under the same ownership, OG Real Estate LLC, and is for the adjacent retail stores at 202 and 204 Sound Beach Ave and 13-27 Arcadia Road. The stores are both typically closed by 5:30pm and release a minimum of 7 spaces at this time.
As for teacher parking, the 28 spaces, including one handicap space, adjoining the properties owned by OG Real Estate LLC, are made available currently by the owners for office, retail and restaurant customers, with an emphasis on daytime parking of 3 hours or less. When teachers arrive after 3:00pm, there are fewer retail customers and the restaurants have yet to start evening dinners, so parking spaces would be available.
In addition there are 7 parking spaces on Arcadia,which are typically available in the afternoon. Parking is limited to two hours and is unlimited after 5:30pm, allowing the teachers to park here if spaces are available.
As for Poly Ed, who hope to move from Chickahominy, their after school programs would be for 5-10 students, with classes starting after 3:00pm and finishing by 8:00pm from Monday to Friday, plus 10:00am to 2:00pm on Saturdays. They plan to operate with two or three instructors present at all times.
Like students for the other business, Poly Ed students would be dropped off in the parking lot at 13 Arcadia Rd per the illustration. An assistant teacher would stand in the market location to collect the students and escort them up the back stairs of the building to the classroom. At pick up an assistant teacher would also be present until all students are picked up.
Neither school would have a reception area for parents so parents would not park on account of their children.
The P&Z commission said they wanted to support education and enrichment for children, but had some concerns about the proposed parking, and both drop off and pick up plan.
P&Z chair Margarita Alban said safety of the children as they enter and leave the building was paramount.
The red circle indicates where a teacher would be positioned to receive a student being dropped off.
The last dotted red line behind the building represents a walking path.
The classes would be staggered with a 15-minute break in between.
The commission was concerned that cars might queue onto Arcadia Road.
The commissioners said because there were two schools with the same hours and drop off, they’d like to make sure the queue length was possible.
“You definitely have to coordinate between these two organizations. They have to work together to make it work,” Alban said. “Ideally they won’t overlap their starts.”
Alban also said that while the classes start at a time that retail ebbs, the classes would be underway when customers for restaurants begin to arrive, and Le Fat Poodle has an especially successful business.
“All you need is three parents waiting for the teacher to get their kid. They can’t park, so they’re now (queuing) out on Arcadia. How do you resolve that? To me it would be changing the direction of the parking lot, but what do you do about people coming to use the parking lot in the evening.”
Richard Saunders, representing the applicants, said the teacher on duty would be trained to move cars along and get the children out of the cars.
But the teacher can’t do that at pick-up time,” Alban said. “Because the teacher is finishing the class still, and the parents are queuing up for pick-up.”
“I think you have a real tough logistical challenge in this location,” Alban said.
“There already exists a lot of parking non-cooperation in Old Greenwich. Enforcement is really nice, but if 90% of the people are going to do what they want to anyway, you have to prepare for non-compliance,” commissioner Mary Jenkins said.
“Even beyond getting compliance, you have a logistical problem because of the queuing here and you have two different sets of classes going here,” Alban said.
“The use sounds awesome. I love kids being smart, but I also love them being alive,” Alban said. “We leave you to work on this….We are open to this if you can make it workable.”
Alban also suggested the applicant work with staff at P&Z. “You can vet it with out staff. They’re very experienced, all of them. They’ve seen the issues with traffic, parking and pick-up.”
Alban noted that the new Central Middle School is planned to have extensive queuing capability, but the joke is, “parents will bust out of that queue.”
Commissioner Nick Macri suggested flipping the direction of parent traffic loop.
“Your job is to set it up so parents have a safe option,” Alban said. “We have denied some of these in the past. There was a music school proposal that took us to court and lost because we said it wasn’t safe. That said, we recognize that these type of uses, besides being great for the young people, are also the way of the future. Goods and commodities are not going to drive people to the retail areas.”
The applicant was asked to address the logistical issues before returning to the commission.
See also:
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