Residents, officials push back against proposed daycare

Another packed house is expected in the Salah Meeting Room next Thursday evening as the Zoning Board of Appeals resumes deliberations on a contentious new daycare proposal opposite Canton High School.

The applicants in the case, Digvijay and Tsering Gurung of Medfield, are seeking site plan approval to build and operate a Goddard School franchise on undeveloped property at 921 Washington Street. (CHS is located directly across the road at 900 Washington Street). The land, which was previously approved for a residential subdivision, is owned by local developer Pat Considine and abuts homes on Washington and Beal streets as well as property owned by Mass Audubon.

A view of the daycare site as presented to the ZBA. (CCTV screenshot)

Plans call for the construction of a 10,250-square-foot building with 11 classrooms, office and administrative space, and two adjacent outdoor play areas. The proposed parking lot would accommodate 39 spaces, with an additional area in the rear to accommodate overflow parking and snow storage.

The Canton location, if approved, would be the Gurungs’ second Goddard franchise after their existing location in Medfield, which opened in 2009. In a letter to abutters, the husband and wife team expressed a strong desire to expand to Canton and pointed to a demand for high quality childcare options in the community. “We strongly believe the Goddard School, with its structured ‘learning through play’ educational program, will fill that need and be an asset to the town,” said the Gurungs.

But while the brand itself is certainly well established — it is currently the largest franchised preschool system in the nation with 525 schools in 38 states — the choice of location has rankled many of the neighbors, whose concerns range from traffic congestion to pedestrian safety to potential drainage impacts.

Even the zoning board members have seemed perplexed with the applicant’s choice of a site. Chairman Greg Pando, at the board’s February 27 hearing, praised the Goddard School’s credentials as “impeccable” but said he “couldn’t think of a worse location in the town of Canton.” Member Charles Armando went so far as to say that he’d “rather see it go to court” than vote in favor of the project, citing concerns about the parking plan and potential traffic backups in the area. “Right now I’d vote no, I’m telling you,” he said.

Fellow ZBA member John McCourt also expressed serious concerns about traffic, pointing to his personal experience driving Washington Street to challenge the assumptions made by the applicant’s traffic engineers.

“I drive that [road] every single day of my life … but if I’m up at Rubin Court and I have to go to Brayton Circle at 8 o’clock in the morning, I do not go Washington Street because you cannot move,” McCourt said. “It’ll take me a half hour to 45 minutes to get there, so when you’re saying another [projected] 60 cars are going to join that [traffic] I believe that’s an issue.”

McCourt also noted that additional traffic can be expected when residential developments are completed at the former Emerson and Cuming property (57 units) and Revere Heritage Site (up to 272 units). However, according to the traffic engineer from Vanasse & Associates, the anticipated traffic from both new projects were already baked into the projections in the study — which estimated an additional 120 vehicles (60 entering and 60 exiting) generated by the daycare during peak weekday morning and evening hours.

Paul Schneiders, attorney for the applicant, further noted that traffic is not nearly a strong enough legal basis to reject a site plan, particularly for a childcare facility — which is exempt from zoning under Mass. General Laws Chapter 40A. Schneiders, in fact, noted that his client was not even required to submit a site plan under state law, but still did so voluntarily while also responding to all of the comments and questions from the town’s consulting engineer, Tom Houston of PSC.

What the town can do with exempted uses such as this one, according to Schneiders, is impose “reasonable regulations” on dimensional requirements, such as lot area, setbacks, parking and building coverage.

Maple Street resident Jim Quigley, however, argued that although someone has a right to do something, “it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”

“We have a master plan [that we’re working on],” said Quigley, a retired Canton police officer and former selectman candidate. “We’re trying to develop Route 138. We’re trying to develop down at the junction. There are just so many things that the town could do. It’s just not the right spot [for a daycare], and traffic is horrendous.”

Karen Foxworth, a direct abutter, lamented the fact that she recently purchased her home with the belief that a few residences would be built on the neighboring site. “Then we find out that we have a place that’s not only abutting conservation land but a place where there’s a driveway 15 feet away from my living room where potentially 200 cars or so, including delivery trucks and all that, will come and go every day,” she said.

Others who spoke raised concerns about the size of the parking lot and the potential congestion caused by motorists attempting to turn in to the site. Regarding the potentially dangerous curve located just to the south of the property, representatives for the applicant said they intend to alter the topography to improve the site distances. Additionally, they are proposing to “beef up” the pedestrian accommodations in the area with more signage, including flashing beacons to alert motorists about the 20 mile-per-hour school zone.

After making some general comments and hearing from a number of residents, the zoning board elected to continue the matter until Thursday, March 12. The ZBA was also still awaiting the recommendations of the Planning Board, which was due to hold a hearing on the site plan last night …

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Posted by Jay Turner on Mar 5 2020. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.