‘NO WAY
It took seven meetings, in a process spanning nearly two years, for a proposed daycare center to get a majority vote from the Morris Township zoning board on Monday.
And it lost anyway.
After almost three-and-a-half hours of bashing by residents, who occasionally were admonished by the board to pipe down, The Learning Experience appeared to prevail by a 4-3 margin.
The vote was repeated, in fact, just to get the semantics right.
But board Attorney Richard Oller then explained to the hushed audience that a use variance requires five votes.
The center pitched for One Whippany Road–a triangular acre bounded by Whippany and Columbia roads and Morris Avenue–actually had been defeated.
“You’re putting these children on an island surrounded by … traffic,” said board member Paul Woodford
“The real concern to me is the safety of these children. If there’s a disaster, what happens? How do they get off this property safely?” continued Woodford, a Township resident since 1964.
Also voting against The Learning Experience were Lee Goldberg, echoing safety concerns, and Samantha Rothman. She suggested the Township had some responsibility to protect the nearby Ford Mansion, where George Washington wintered during the Revolutionary War.
It’s part of the Morristown National Historical Park, which Americans have spent millions of dollars to preserve, Rothman said. An intensive commercial operation would diminish the park; potential defoliation of the daycare tract would spoil views from the Ford Mansion, she asserted.
Supporting the proposal were John Christensen, Paul Staudt, Donnell Williams and Chairman Tim Kronk, who contended child safety issues would have been addressed by state officials, whose approvals also were required.
The Learning Experience intended to replace a late-19th-century Colonial Revival home with a two-story, 11,960-square-foot facility, to accommodate 25 staffers and 181 children ranging in age from six weeks to six years.
‘A BURDEN THAT SHADOWS ALL GOOD MEMORY’
“Ignore the applause meter,” implored project attorney Stephen Sinisi, prior to the vote.
He referred to cheers from the sizable crowd for statements by residents of Washington’s Headquarters, a neighborhood straddling the Morris Township/Morristown border.
Allowing this commercial enterprise in their residential zone would set a bad precedent, exacerbating speeding, flooding side roads with traffic, marring local historic charm, and harming property values, they warned.
A mother of two young children, Kristen Schrader, choked up when contemplating them on that traffic island during an emergency.
“There is literally no way in hell I would ever let my kids go there,” she told the board.
Speakers included Carol Barkin of the Township Historic Preservation Commission, and Ken Miller of the Morristown Historical Preservation Commission. Morristown Councilman Robert Iannaccone and former Morristown Council President Rebecca Feldman, who both reside in the neighborhood, also spoke against the proposal.
Sinisi said he will speak with his client, 1 Whippany Road LLC, about appealing the board’s decision to state Superior Court.
In his summation Monday, he emphasized that New Jersey considers daycare “inherently beneficial,” shifting the burden to municipal officials to prove such plans pose substantial detriments.
Citing testimony from an array of architects, planners and traffic experts, Sinisi said The Learning Experience had presented a strong, factual case, and demonstrated cooperation and sensitivity by agreeing to modify the design and prohibit weekend operations and special events, among other conditions.
The board also heard impassioned pleas from Betsy Jett and Heather Emelander, members of the Wyse family who inherited the house from their late parents, who bought the place in 1955. For years, the family home doubled as an office for their father, a physician.
Jett blamed the traffic island created in the 1970s for isolating the homestead from neighbors, and hindering efforts to sell what she described as a run-down, costly-to-maintain house of no historical significance. The family plans to demolish the structure, she said.
“The application before you may well be the best option that you’re likely to see for this property,” Jett said.
“We are tired of this fight, and the anger that seems to fill this room,” added Emilander, who is president of the Friends of the Frelinghuysen Arboretum and former president of the Morris County Historical Society.
“We ask you now to release us from One Whippany Road and what has become a burden that shadows all good memory,” Emilander told the board.
The Learning Experience is at least the third daycare center to hit the shoals in Greater Morristown in recent years.
Morristown’s zoning board nixed another Learning Experience franchise in 2015, after nine hearings. A year earlier, the same board shot down an application from the Rainbow Academy.
That property would be a disaster as a daycare- let alone just plain odd for the neighborhood. Preserve the house!
It is entertaining to try to imagine pickups and drop-offs, as well as parking for 25 staffers, on this property.