LAGUNA NIGUEL : Council OKs Plan for Day-Care Center

A proposal to open a Montessori preschool and day-care center has received the final approval from the City Council over the objections of neighbors worried about increased traffic and proper use of land designated as open space.

The council voted 3 to 1 Tuesday to allow Bettencourt & Associates to place the 162-student school in the planned Beacon Hill Commercial Center at Ridgeway Avenue and Niguel Road.

The decision came after a three-hour public hearing in which members of the Beacon Hills Homeowners’ Assn. argued that building the 7,000-square-foot school in the middle of a residential neighborhood would cause traffic to stack up on Niguel and Ridgeway.

The matter had come before the council because the homeowners’ association appealed the Planning Commission’s earlier approval of the project.

Councilwoman Patricia C. Bates was the only council member to vote against the school plan. She said she hoped homeowners and Bettencourt & Associates could work out their differences through another month of talks.

Mayor Janet Godfrey and Councilmen Thomas W. Wilson and Mark Goodman voted in favor of the school. They agreed with a city recommendations that the increased traffic would not be disastrous for the community and that the use of “public space” as a private school playground was appropriate.