New childcare facility coming to Winnetka

Winnetka village trustees on Tuesday unanimously approved a zoning request that will allow the Winnetka Community Church to open a 64-child childcare operation in its north wing, with some trustees praising the addition of more childcare for community parents in need of it. 

“I think all the women up here were working moms and parents,” Trustee Tina Dalman said, gesturing toward fellow trustees Bridget Orsic and Kim Handler. “I wish this option would have existed when my kids were young. … This is just wonderful.”

The special use permit change will allow the church, at 725 Pine St., to lease space to Jumpstart Early Learning Services, an operation that will have 11 teachers and one director, caring for children between six weeks and 6 years of age. No outdoor play area is planned, because the church gymnasium provides space for healthy physical activities, church officials said.

The school has already received preliminary approval from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, according to the report from Community Development Director Scott Mangum.

Traffic concerns took up the majority of council time on Tuesday. Earlier this year, the village’s Plan Commission and its Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously supported the request, Mangum told trustees. Those recommendations came with a requirement that the church provide a traffic circulation plan, because of concerns about how cars bringing and picking up children would affect the neighborhood around the church, which sits at the intersection of Pine and Prospect Avenue and is near the intersection of Pine and Lincoln Avenue. 

After reviewing the church’s parking and traffic flow plans, the village engineer and police chief recommended a so-called “look-back” provision that would allow the village to add additional requirements if officials deem it necessary. Trustees approved expanding a six-month review to 12 months.

Trustee Scott Myers asked Jumpstart Director Victor Cuebas, a Winnetka resident, about when most parent dropoffs are expected to take place. While most children at the organization’s other locations arrive between 8-9 a.m., those get spread between 7-10 a.m., Cuebas said before agreeing with Myers that there could be about 40 cars dropping children off during the peak drop-off time. Myers estimated that about 55 cars could arrive and leave throughout the entire drop-off period. 

Amy Falkowski, the church’s director of operations, said church and Jumpstart staff will be on hand to oversee dropoffs, which she said generally take between one to two minutes each. The circular driveway where those take place can handle 15 cars at a time, she added, saying helping with pickup and dropoff will be a “well-oiled machine.” 

Myers asked Mangum about how Jumpstart traffic would interact with expected traffic from a Spynergy studio that’s expected to move to a nearby Lincoln Avenue location, or with other nearby nursery school locations. He asked if the village could ask Spynergy for “flexibility” in its operating hours, “so there’s not as much traffic happening all at one time.” 

Mangum replied that Spynergy’s patrons will likely park for longer periods of time. Although it will operate by zoning right, staff could ask its staff about voluntarily adjusting operating times, he said. 

Before the vote, Handler thanked Cuebas and church representatives for bringing the project to Winnetka: “There’s a need for this … such a need. Thank you.”

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