Howard County hearing examines traffic safety as Friendship Baptist Church seeks to expand daycare to 110 students

Howard County’s hearing examiner heard evidence April 7 on Friendship Baptist Church’s application to increase its child daycare capacity from the previously approved 39 morning and 39 afternoon slots to a total of 110 students.

The petitioner’s witnesses focused the hearing on traffic and site capacity. Thomas B. McKee, speaking as a representative of Friendship Baptist Church, said the church negotiated a lease with Little Oak Nursery School and that moving utility poles and performing related work would make building acceleration and deceleration lanes “financially impossible for either the church or the Little Oak Nursery School.” McKee also said, based on his knowledge, that ingress and egress at the church site have not been a historic problem.

Traffic engineer Joseph Caligier, retained by the church, testified that a 2007 aerial (Exhibit 2) showed acceleration/deceleration and a bypass lane at the site but that the Maryland State Highway Administration later restriped the segment of Maryland 32 to a three-lane cross-section with a two-way center turn lane. Caligier said that center turn lane provides storage space that functions similarly to an acceleration lane for vehicles leaving the site, reducing the need for separate deceleration/acceleration lanes.

Caligier described a trip-generation analysis (Exhibit 4) using a 110-student scenario and the church’s hours of operation. He estimated morning peak-hour trips at 44 inbound and 39 outbound (83 total) and evening peak-hour trips at 39 inbound and 43 outbound (82 total). He testified that about 90% of trips would originate from the south and that the projected levels of service to enter and exit onto Maryland 32 meet State Highway Administration guidelines.

Caligier also reviewed operational patterns (Exhibit 5) and said the daycare’s drop-offs are often staggered throughout the day rather than concentrated solely during commuter peak hours; he described the program as a nursery-school model with some children arriving for shorter sessions, which spreads arrivals and departures.

On safety history, Caligier summarized ten years of crash data (Exhibit 7) for the Maryland 32 corridor near the church: “over those 10 years there were 13 crashes. And of those, there were 2 directly, related to the intersection,” a same-direction rear-end in 2016 and a front-to-rear crash in 2025. He testified that two crashes in ten years does not establish a recurring crash pattern and characterized the frequency as minimal relative to typical 3–5 year review windows.

Civil engineer Dan Sweeney of GLW, also sworn, told the examiner he reviewed the Department of Planning and Zoning technical staff report and had no disagreements. Sweeney confirmed the application proposes no new construction or building expansion, said the existing playground meets requirements, and noted the technical report’s count of 170 on-site parking spaces.

No member of the hearing record recommended new site construction; the petitioner argued acceleration/deceleration lanes are not feasible, and the petitioner’s traffic expert concluded the existing roadway configuration and staggered operations can accommodate the increased enrollment without unacceptable safety or operational impacts.

The examiner admitted Exhibits 1–7 into evidence, closed the hearing record and said a decision and order will be issued shortly.

The case is recorded in the Howard County docket as case number 25O23C for Friendship Baptist Church’s conditional use application to operate a child daycare and nursery school with a total capacity of 110 students.