Daycare Debate Pushed Into New Year

The Morristown Zoning Board continued its consideration of an application from the Rainbow Academy daycare center in a marathon session that lasted four hours Wednesday night until 11 p.m. when the meeting was called for time and the application held until Feb. 19, 2014, according to Morristown Green.

The center, which has 17 New Jersey branches and nearly twice as many across New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, is asking the board for variances to permit erecting a 10,765-square-foot daycare center in an unused parking lot in a residential zone that includes the Convent Mews condominiums. The request unearthed a lot of opposition from condo residents—which shocked Rainbow Academy's founder and CEO, Guy Falzarano, who told Morristown Green he had never been met with opposition since starting the firm 16 years ago.

“Of all the things you can put anywhere, child care is the most benign use," Falzarano said.

Residents argued that from their viewpoint, the development would be anything but benign. They were represented by lawyers and a traffic engineer who said the center would worsen traffic at the intersection of Turtle Road and Madison Avenue, create disturbances from playgrounds, damage quality of life and bring down property values. Falzarano said his centers have never created any of those sorts of problems.

Rainbow Academy proposed a number of concessions at the meeting, including limiting enrollment to 174 children, building a solid fence around the site and add a stormwater recharge system to keep floods at bay.