Manalapan preschool wins OK from board
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - The construction of a preschool across the street from an adult community was approved by the Planning Board on July 26.

The 4-2 vote to approve The Learning Experience came after a series of meetings in which some residents of the adult community, the Village Grande, had appeared before the board to object to the application.

In the end, board members Herb Lazar, Don Holland, Herb Barrack and Richard Farrell voted to approve the application. Board members Richard Cohen and Jack McNaboe voted no.

Board member Steven Pine had recused himself from participating in the matter due to a conflict of interest.

The application for a commercial development originally known as the Orchards started out as a proposal for an office building and a preschool franchise for The Learning Experience, with both to be built on a parcel across from the Village Grande on Business Route 33.

The Village Grande is part of a group of developments in the area surrounding the Battleground Country Club, Mill-hurst Road.

Pine is a member of the master board that oversees all of the homeowner boards and associations that operate throughout the Battleground residential complex.

The office building was dropped from the Orchards application and only the preschool was approved. The preschool is a permitted use on the property, although it required variances related to the size of the building and the Business Route 33 entrance.

The project will have one entrance/exit. The access point will loop drivers around the school in designated lanes. A buffer of 200 feet is required from Business Route 33 to the school and the applicant provided a 75-foot buffer from the highway to the school.

There will be 42 parking spaces provided at the school to accommodate staff parking and parking for parents to drop off and pick up their children.

The number of parking spaces was a point of contention for some residents who said additional parking spaces should be provided. The residents were concerned that there will be traffic backups at the entrance to the school, which is across Business Route 33 from the entrance to their community.

Attorney Gerald Sonnenblick, representing the applicant, presented testimony from a traffic expert who said the design of the application met the standards set by the state Department of Transportation.

There will be a playground behind the preschool and a 6-foot-high fence around the playground. The playground area will have an emergency access gate.