Planning Board approves site plan for two-room infant daycare at 64 Riverside Drive with conditions

The Northampton Planning Board voted unanimously Feb. 13 to approve a site plan allowing a nature-based, two-room infant daycare at 64 Riverside Drive in the Florence neighborhood.

The board approved the application by an applicant identifying himself as Bernard, who said the proposed operation would serve 14 infants in two classrooms with four staff. The motion, made and seconded during the meeting, approved the applicant’s alternate site plan 2 showing two off‑street parking spaces with on‑lot turnaround, waived the project’s traffic mitigation fee, and required landscape screening and a condition limiting drop‑off and pick‑up hours so they do not coincide with nearby high school peak times.

Why it matters: the approval adds one small, licensed daycare capacity point in a neighborhood with limited childcare options. The applicant said the operation is an extension of an existing program run next door at 11 Ormond Drive (Wild Garden of Childhood / Little Schoolhouse family daycare), and that the proposed site would allow continued nature‑based programming while preserving much of the site’s garden area.

Most important facts: the applicant, who gave a home address as 58 Market Street, asked the board to permit conversion of the single‑family ranch house at 64 Riverside Drive to a operated daycare. He told the board the proposal would require only limited building work for handicap accessibility and entrances; the operation would be staffed by four employees. He also asked the board to waive the traffic mitigation payment (noted in the application as roughly $10,000) on the grounds that existing high‑school drop‑off and pick‑up was the principal local traffic driver and that the daycare’s pick‑up schedule would not coincide with peak hours.

Board and staff discussion focused on parking orientation, the zoning interpretation for daycare parking, and enforcement of the proposed pick‑up and drop‑off schedule. Planning staff described the zoning table that currently lists K–12 schools as the closest analogous use for parking tabulation; the building commissioner had previously indicated two spaces would be required based on the building square footage. Board members and the applicant discussed three layout alternatives in the application package: the existing two‑car driveway layout, an alternate that showed three spaces but did not meet lot‑line setbacks, and alternate 2 (approved) that relocates two off‑street spaces with a maneuver/turnaround area on the lot.

The board also added a condition that shrubbery be maintained in the first five feet between the new parking and the street to screen parked cars, and that the applicant maintain the natural landscape where feasible. The board noted the tree on the site would be transplanted by the prior owner and that existing planting was an element the applicant sought to preserve. Enforcement of the pickup/drop‑off schedule was left as a condition, with the board noting enforcement typically occurs through neighbor complaints and subsequent code or licensing follow‑up.

Public comment in Council Chambers included two speakers who addressed division/density and due process for abutters; none of the public present objected to the daycare application during the public comment period. The application’s traffic study—submitted by the applicant—was discussed during the hearing; the applicant said the existing nearby high school creates brief, concentrated peaks that have not overlapped with the applicant’s current drop‑off times at the adjacent operation.

Action and outcome: the planning board’s motion approved the site plan for 64 Riverside Drive subject to the conditions cited above and the waiving of the traffic mitigation fee. The board voted unanimously in favor.

What’s next: the approval includes the site plan conditions the board identified; any building permits, licensing for the daycare and final building‑department determinations (for example, final parking requirement interpretation by the building commissioner) remain separate steps the applicant must complete before opening.