Residents block proposed day care center

Byram - Little Learner Academy scrapped plans last week to build a third day care center in the township at a site on three acres of wooded property, much to the delight of local residents, who feared the development would infringe on their privacy. “We would have been totally visible from the highway,” said Christy Horton, who lives about 200 feet from the proposed location. “It’s kind of our security blanket. Not many people know we’re back there.” Little Learner Academy withdrew its application with the township planning board last week. The decision ended a two-year battle with local residents. “It would have been terrible,” said Horton, who helped spearhead the fight to block the 9,462 square-foot facility. “We worked really hard to keep it out of our neighborhood.” Horton cited the anticipated increased lighting, traffic and noise levels for opposing the facility and its plans to accommodate some 150 children and 35 counselors. “Maybe if it was a smaller facility,” said Byram resident Wendy D’Ullise. “We would have all these cars going through; the going in, coming out at the busiest times of the day. It’s hard enough making a left onto the intersection.” Just last year, some Byram residents asked for help from the municipality after a local daycare center closed its doors. At the time residents complained the closing of the center would create hardship to working parents in the municipality. Last week, Horton said, she believed the project was abandoned after her group uncovered a drain on the property and the implications that finding had on wetlands restrictions. “It took a lot of investigating,” said Horton. “There was a lot of digging, a lot of prodding and a lot of learning to uncover the truths about that property.” The township planning board had denied Little Learning Academy an application to build on the property two years ago. After the academy filed suit, a judge ruled that the board should not have denied the application, but agreed that a variance would be needed for a portion of the land zoned residential. Last month, the board unanimously granted the variance. Nearby residents opposed the ruling because it eliminated a buffer of trees between the the Route 206 jug handle and the West Brookwood neighborhood. “We all branded together,” said Horton. “I got to know a lot of my neighbors who I never knew before.” In addition, the state Department of Environmental Protection suspended the academy’s permit after learning of a nearby stormwater system that discharges into the Musconetcong River. “We uncovered some truths about the property,” said Horton. “There are some very specific laws as to what you can and what you can’t build on that property.” Neighbors also expressed concern about portions of the property and its location in the Highlands preservation area, which would require additional DEP approval. “I didn’t know anything about environmental studies when we began,” said Horton. “I stayed up a lot of nights studying this. Now I think I can teach it.”