New York

The Journal News Westchester New York
By Ken Valenti

NEW ROCHELLE - A day-care center that must move to make way for developer Louis Cappelli's LeCount Square project downtown has found a potential new home.

Bob Conner, owner of Royal Child Care Center, has signed a lease for ground-floor space at 10 Commerce St., the home of Somnia Inc., an anesthesia services management company. The new location is less convenient to reach than the current site but offers a larger space, which will allow the center to add and expand classrooms, Conner said.

"We're happy we found a new place," he said. "As long as it's a good day-care center, people will go to it."

Conner said enrollment could rise from 98 children now, the maximum the center can hold in its current space, to 137. The new space would be 10,000 square feet, including 1,000 square feet for storage. The center now fills 7,800 square feet on LeCount Place.

Dr. Marc Koch, president and chief executive officer of Somnia, said the company was thrilled to offer the space. Some of Koch's employees plan to enroll their children in the center when it opens downstairs, he said.

"We consider it both an honor and a privilege to have a relationship with somebody who provides such a valuable service to the community," Koch said.

On Commerce Street, Conner said, he could add two classes for infants and a class for 3-year-olds. He also could expand the class of 5-year-olds to 22 from 13 and create a play area outside, he said.

Cappelli's development of residences, stores, a hotel and offices would occupy the block bound by LeCount Place, North Avenue and Anderson and Huguenot streets. The developer is still working with the U.S. Postal Service to move post office trucking operations and with Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic to move a clinic that operates on the site.

Conner said the future day-care center site, on a dead-end industrial street near Exit 16 of Interstate 95, is still within walking distance of North Avenue, but he may run a shuttle there from North Avenue.

The site would require changes to city zoning and an urban renewal plan to allow for a ground-floor day-care center and fewer parking spaces than would normally be needed. The City Council agreed this week to consider allowing the use on dead-end streets downtown and to ease parking space requirements because it is near mass transportation and public parking areas.

On Jan. 30, the Planning Board will hold a hearing on a proposed change to the urban renewal plan. The City Council will hold a hearing Feb. 6 on the changes to both the urban renewal plan and the zoning code.

With the changes, the business would need a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Comment: I put this in for my husband who grew up in this city. I hope he finds familiar street names and of course enjoys the picture.