The Children’s School

Demolition of Alpine Restaurant is Approved, Kickstarting Work on The Children’s School

By Jo DeVoe

(Updated at 2 p.m.) Plans to demolish Alpine Restaurant on Lee Highway have been approved, inching forward the planned construction of The Children’s School daycare facility.

Despite the approval, the permit to demolish the building at 4770 Lee Highway, held by Trinity Group Construction, has yet to be issued.

“Once a payment is received, the permit is then issued,” said Andrew Pribulka, a spokesperson for the Arlington Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development, in an email. “Demolition may not begin until permits have been issued and posted.”

Trinity has applied for two other permits, one to excavate and another to build the facility.

Requests for comment from Trinity and The Children’s School were not returned.

The progress comes two-and-a-half years after the County Board unanimously approved a permit to build a three-story daycare facility for children of employees of Arlington Public Schools, to be built where the long-time restaurant has stood vacant for a decade.

The private, nonprofit child care center will oversee no more than 235 children of APS staff between the ages of two months and five years old. This new facility will also be home to Integration Station, a program for kids with developmental or other disabilities.

Both the co-op daycare and Integration Station are temporarily housed in the same Ballston office building at 4420 N. Fairfax Drive. The programs were co-located in the Reed School building in Westover, but were forced out when APS decided to open a new elementary school there.

The Reed School is set to open to students in 2021.

One year after approving the project, the Board approved a request to eliminate off-site parking and modify initial architectural plans.

Most parking is below-ground with some above ground, and the plans now includes a third-story rear play deck and an expanded rear wall to shield neighboring houses from car headlights, a concern from residents.

Alpine Restaurant served Italian cuisine and was in business for 44 years before closing in 2010 upon the owner’s retirement. It was acquired by the owners of the Liberty Tavern Restaurant Group, which ultimately decided against opening a new restaurant there.

Photo via Google Maps

County Board Approves Request To Eliminate Off-Site Parking At New Children’s School on Lee Highway

By Kalina Newman
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As The Children’s School gets closer to building a three-story daycare facility at 4700 Lee Highway, the Arlington County Board has approved a request to eliminate off-site parking and modify initial architectural plans.

During its meeting last night the Board approved a request to alter the site’s requirements for an off-site parking lot, and instead have a total of 36 on-site parking spaces, 12 more than required under updated zoning code. Thirty of the spaces will be in an underground garage, while 6 will be surface parking.

“At the time of use permit approval [in 2018, the Zoning Ordinance required one (1) parking space per employee for a child care use,” a county staff report explains. “Since that approval, Section 14.3 of the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance has been updated to require one (1) parking space per ten children.”

The new facility is being built where the shuttered Alpine Restaurant now stands.

Architectural changes include extension of the third-story rear play deck, expansion of the front landscape, and the addition of windows to the rear of the building.

The Board also moved to expand the site’s rear wall so car headlights will not shine into neighboring houses, which was subject of concern from residents at the meeting.

Eight spaces in the site’s parking garage will used for child pick-up and drop-off. Parents will also be able to use a teacher-assisted curb loop right off Lee Highway for similar purposes.

When complete, the child care center will oversee up to 235 children between the ages of two months to five years old. The final number of children permitted will “be subject to approval” by the county Child Care Office and the county’s Inspection Services Division, per a staff report.

The co-op program for the children of Arlington Public Schools employees has long operated out of the Reed School building in Westover, but with APS planning to open a new elementary school at that site in 2021, the Children’s School has been forced to relocate elsewhere. The new facility will also be home to Integration Station, a program for kids with developmental or other disabilities that intermingles with The Children’s School.

Until its permanent location is complete, the facility is temporarily located in the second and third floors of a Ballston office building located at 4420 N. Fairfax Drive.

The Children’s School Advances Plans for Former Alpine Restaurant Site

By Alex Koma
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The Children’s School is moving closer to finding a permanent new home, as it pushes forward plans to build a three-story daycare facility along Lee Highway.

The child care program for Arlington Public Schools employees is looking for a county permit to redevelop the space once occupied by the Alpine Restaurant at 4770 Lee Highway, marking the first formal proposal that the school would seek to build a a 27,500-square-foot facility on the property.

The Children’s School got its start in 1987 at the Reed School building in Westover as a childcare program owned and operated by school system employees, but APS’ plans to build a new elementary school at the site pushed the program elsewhere.

The co-op is currently operating out of a Ballston office building, and would look to use the Alpine site to expand its operations and serve about 235 children in total. Anywhere from 60 to 70 of those students would likely be part of the “Integration Station” program, which is reserved for kids with developmental or other disabilities, allaying initial worries that The Children’s School wouldn’t be able to maintain its relationship with the program.

The school is hoping to demolish the current restaurant on the property, then build a three-story facility complete with two outdoor play spaces and a one-level underground parking garage.

In all, there would be 42 parking spaces located on site, as well as nine extra spaces on an adjacent lot to serve the roughly 40 employees at the program. The building would also include a “covered drive aisle” to facilitate easy pick-up and drop-offs by parents, with hours running from about 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. each weekday.

The play areas, designed to serve kids from 2 months old to 5 years old, would be located on the second- and third-floor roofs of the property, and both will be enclosed by a 7-foot-tall mesh fence. Those will face away from the road and toward the residential neighborhoods behind the building.

County staff are recommending that the County Board approve the project, writing in a report that the program has managed to work up the right sort of plans to mitigate any potential traffic impacts along Lee Highway. The Lee Highway Alliance also endorsed the project in a letter to the Board.

Board members will consider the permit request Saturday (July 14) as part of the Board’s “consent agenda,” which is generally reserved for non-controversial matters that are passed without debate.

The Children’s School Earns Green Light to Move to Ballston Office Building

By Alex Koma

A child care center for Arlington Public Schools employees now has the green light to temporarily move to a Ballston office building.

The Arlington County Board voted unanimously on April 24 to approve an updated permit for The Children’s School, clearing the way for the nonprofit to relocate to the second and third floors of a building located at 4420 N. Fairfax Drive.

The co-op program has long operated out of the Reed School building in Westover, but, with APS officials planning to open a new elementary school at that site in 2021, The Children’s School has been forced to go elsewhere.

The program’s leaders are currently eyeing the former Alpine Restaurant property along Lee Highway as a permanent home for the daycare center, but they plan to start accepting students at the Ballston location this July while they work out the details.

The newly renewed permit for the program allows it to accept up to 200 children at the facility, and also allows the nonprofit to build a new playground behind the building.

Yet some residents of the condos at the Continental at Ballston, which sits directly behind the program’s new home, raised concerns with the County Board about how the childcare center could impact traffic and parking in the area.

The permit allows for parents picking up and dropping off students to circle around the building using small side street, then turn onto N. Vermont Street to return to N. Fairfax Drive. That prompted concerns that a steady stream of cars passing through in the morning and afternoon could cause headaches for Continental residents, but board members assured the public that they don’t expect any traffic problems with the program’s proposal.

“This is supposed to be a temporary solution,” said Vice Chair Christian Dorsey at the board meeting. “Conceptually, on paper, we think this is going to work just fine. And we have the fall back to know, if this doesn’t work, we can fix it.”

The board is set to review the center’s permit in April 2019, giving Arlington officials a chance to see if the new arrangement is working out for all involved.

Photo via Google Maps