City of Rockville

M E M O R A N D U M

May 18, 2000

TO: Board of Appeals
Planning Commission

FROM: Castor D. Chasten, Planner III

SUBJECT: Special Exception Application, SPX2000-00286
Georgetown Hill Child Care Center, Inc.
850 Nelson Street, Rockville, Maryland 20850

In accordance with Section 25-339(b) of the City of Rockville Zoning Ordinance, the applicant submits the subject application request, seeking to modify two (2) of the five (5) conditions of approval associated with previously approved Special Exception SPX98-0274.  At its March 6, 1999 meeting, the Board of Appeals held a public hearing and after considering all of the evidence of record, voted to grant SPX98-0274 subject to certain conditions.  Said approval allowed for the establishment of a private school in the R-90 (single family detached, restricted residential) zone.  The approved school use was a replacement of a similar school/day care, previously operating out of the subject location, i.e., in the east wing of the Woodley Gardens Swimming Pool clubhouse.   

In its grant of SPX98-0274, the Board of Appeals imposed five (5) conditions of approval.  The applicant seeks to modify condition #3 which reads as follows:  “The applicant school will be operational only between the months of September thru June, the time frame when the Woodley Gardens Swimming Pool is closed for the season.  Further, the subject school’s hours of operation are to be weekdays between 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.”  Staff notes that during the processing of previously approved Special Exception (SPX98-0274), is was discovered that the subject site, the Woodley Gardens Swim Club property had insufficient on-site parking facilities (per requirements of the Zoning Ordinance) to accommodate the operation of the swimming pool and child care/school use concurrently.  Thus to insure that both uses would have ample parking when operational, the Board voted to restrict the months in which the applicant’s childcare center could operate.   

In order that the child care center be allowed to be operational during the same summer/spring months when the swimming pool is opened, the applicant’s attorney sought the Mayor and Council’s support to sponsor and consider a zoning text amendment to revise parking requirements applicable to “private and membership swimming pools, (nonprofit)” (ref. Section 25-395(a)(32) of the Zoning Ordinance).  The Mayor and Council agreed to sponsor the amendment (ref. Text Amendment TXT2000-0181) which was filed in March of this year and currently scheduled for introduction on June 5^th 2000 and adoption on June 26^th 2000 by the Mayor and Council.  The current parking standard which applies to “private and membership swimming pools” is one (1) parking space for each four (4) persons of legal capacity of the pool as defined by the ordinance and one (1) space for each two (2) employees.  With the adoption of Text Amendment TXT2000-0181 by the Mayor and Council, Section 25-395(a)(32) of the Ordinance would be revised as follows: “swimming pool, private, membership (nonprofit); one (1) parking space for each seven (7) persons of the legal capacity of the pool and one (1) space for each two pool employees.”

As per the information provided in the applicant’s current request, which seeks to eliminate approval condition #3 as referenced in the Board of Appeals approval letter dated March 31, 1999 (provided herein as Exhibit 1), staff would recommend that the noted condition of approval be deleted as a condition of the Board’s previous approval of SPX98-0274.  Staff further recommends a new condition of approval be imposed, replacing the condition to be deleted, which states that “the subject school’s hours of operation are to be weekdays between 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.”  However, staff’s recommendation is contingent on the Mayor and Council’s adoption of TXT2000-0181, if the number of parking spaces required for all on-site uses are met. 

Staff does not support the applicant’s request to modify approval condition #5, also imposed by the Board in its grant of SPX98-0274.  Staff does not support the applicant’s request that the replacement fence located along the interior of the lot, which separates the school’s outdoor play area from the swimming pool facility, be lowered from six (6) feet to four (4) feet.  Due to ever present concerns about the safety of children being cared for by the school and the need for physical separation between the swimming pool and school outdoor play area, the required replacement fence should not be reduced in height.

/cdc

Attachment ­ SPX2000-0286 Application