Planning Commission approves Madonna Learning Center campus expansion on Poplar Avenue

The Germantown Planning Commission approved preliminary and final site plans to expand the Madonna Learning Center campus at 7007, 7035 and 7045 Poplar Avenue, including the release of 0.102 acres of right-of-way along Poplar Avenue and multiple conditions listed in staff materials. The motion passed by roll call vote, 5-0.

The plan consolidates Madonna’s existing school campus with a proposed Monarch adult-education campus. Director Ross, presenting staff’s report, said the proposal would add a phase 1 building expansion of just under 3,200 square feet on the existing campus, a 16,000-square-foot adult program building, and a later phase with a roughly 6,000-square-foot chapel/multipurpose building. Ross said the Monarch adult program would be a special-needs adult education program with a maximum of 100 adult students and 30 staff; the existing campus would be able to accommodate about 95 school-age students and 30 staff at full occupancy. Education hours were described as 8 a.m.–3 p.m., with an extended-day option, 7 a.m.–5 p.m.

The staff report and the applicant’s drawings show a 25-foot-wide landscape buffer adjacent to the proposed parking area and a surface parking layout that extends into the front setback at 7035 and 7045. Ross told commissioners the applicant had received a Board of Zoning Appeals approval in September 2024 for a use on appeal related to the two parcels, and that the consolidated plan…