LAGUNA NIGUEL : Planners Approve Day-Care Facility

Reversing a decision made three weeks ago, the Planning Commission has allowed a day-care facility to be built in a commercial and retail center.

On a 3-2 vote, commissioners cleared the way for a 7,000-square-foot Montessori School at the Beacon Hill Commercial Center at Niguel Road and Ridgeway Avenue.

The plans passed last week despite the opposition of about a dozen neighborhood residents who said traffic conditions on Ridgeway Avenue are already hazardous.

“We did a study two years ago that showed cars were traveling down Ridgeway at 54 m.p.h.,” said Nigel McClurg, a representative of the Beacon Hill Homeowners Assn. “We know there’s a need for a school there, but we have deep concerns over traffic density if this gets built.”

McClurg says the homeowners association plans to hire a traffic consultant to do additional studies on the area and will file an appeal of the commission’s decision.

The Montessori School would be allowed 162 students. About half would be of preschool age and the other children would be elementary age and going there for after-school care.

Owned by Taylor Woodrow Homes, the Beacon Hill Center is a proposed 21,000-square-foot retail / commercial project that will include a restaurant and retail shops.

The center was approved by the commission in July, 1992.

After voting against the Montessori proposal on April 12, Commissioner Linda Lindholm said she changed her mind when the developers agreed to improve traffic circulation in front of the school.

The original plan had two-way traffic running in front of the school and Lindholm said she “wasn’t comfortable with that in terms of safety. I couldn’t vote for any project with that kind of traffic circulation.”

Lindholm met with city traffic engineers and representatives of the developers at the site last week and the plans were amended.

Instead of two-way traffic, cars could drive in only one direction while picking up and dropping off children under the new proposal.

“I think schools benefit the community better than a doughnut shop,” Lindholm said. “That’s why I worked a little harder to see this happen.”