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Commission rejects proposed gym addition to Central Square daycare amid parking, ownership and neighborhood concerns
Summary
A proposal to combine two garden-home lots and build a gym supporting an existing Central Square daycare drew sustained neighborhood opposition and was not approved after commissioners voted against the proposal.
The Central Planning and Zoning Commission denied a major-change application (SPUD 109) that would combine two garden-home lots and place a gymnasium intended to serve an existing daycare in the Central Square subdivision.
JWBM Holdings is listed as applicant/owner with Centerline Engineering representing the project; Beau "Booty" (full name stated in the record) spoke for the applicant. The operator of the daycare, Wyatt Graves, described the gym as an accessory facility for students in the licensed daycare program and said hours would match the existing daycare schedule. He said the gym primarily would serve enrolled children but could be used after hours for small youth practices such as “bitty basketball.” The applicant said the gym was intended to improve programming, not to increase enrollment.
More than a dozen neighbors spoke in opposition at the public hearing. Speakers cited parking capacity, an already overtaxed private sewer system, increased traffic near a single-point access lane and the loss of green space. Several residents said they had purchased with the understanding the immediate area would remain residential and objected that the requested change would convert lots from residential to commercial use. Multiple speakers submitted or offered a petition opposing the application.
Commissioners focused their questions on parking, ownership and long-term control of the gym lot. Commissioners asked whether the gym lot would be combined legally with the daycare parcel or whether cross-access and parking agreements would be used; staff confirmed that, as presented, the lots were not joined under single ownership and that the requested use would be a commercial change that would have to be revisited if a new owner sought a different use. Commissioners noted that a standalone gym parcel without guaranteed parking could be sold later to another user, creating the risk of a different commercial use incompatible with the subdivision.
The commission debated whether to require lot combination or a recorded cross-access/parking servitude as a condition. Several commissioners said they could not support the application without a clear, legally binding parking arrangement; others expressed concern that allowing the gym on a separate lot would set a precedent allowing more small-scale commercial conversions along already-developed blocks.
A motion to approve was put to roll call; the record shows the commission voted with a majority of "no" votes and the application failed. Commissioners repeatedly cited parking and the precedent of changing residential lots to commercial use as the principal reasons for opposition.
