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More than six years after it was forced to shut down its on-site preschool amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church is hoping to bring the service back to its premises with a hearing at this week’s Danville Planning Commission meeting.
Although the preschool had operated at the church since before the town’s incorporation in 1983, it has lost its grandfathered-in status since shuttering the operation in 2020.
That means that restoring the preschool requires a new land-use permit application in order to allow for a childcare facility on the site at 1550 Diablo Road, which is currently under multi-family residential zoning.
While reopening the preschool would bring additional traffic and parking needs to the area, the site currently contains sufficient parking, with a traffic management plan included as part of the package on this week’s agenda. The project would also be CEQA exempt, according to a staff report from project planner Riley Anderson-Barrett.
“The use of the church facilities and the preschool are not anticipated to have conflicting peak hours and use of the parking lots as church services are held on Sundays,” Anderson-Barrett wrote. “The project already integrates staggered schedules with drop-off lasting from 8:00-9:00 a.m. and pickup lasting from 3:00-5:00 p.m. Half-day students are picked-up at 12:00 p.m.”
“The staggered drop-off and pick-up schedule helps to mitigate any potential shortage of parking or back-ups within the drop-off zone and would be required as a recommended condition of approval,” she continued.
The Danville Planning Commission is set to meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday (June 9). The agenda is available here.
