Developer proposes to build Cherry Hill daycare center between Church Road and Coles Avenue.

A North Jersey developer will go before the Cherry Hill Planning Board for approval to demolish three buildings off Church Road near Route 38 and build a daycare center.

The L-shaped, 1.46-acre property that includes the former Toy Train Emporium and a former home would have parking lot on Coles Avenue for the 12,000-square-foot Lightbridge Academy daycare center planned by Piyush Patel and Kalpesh Patel of East Brunswick, Middlesex County, according to documents filed with the application.

An open Planning Board caucus where applications are discussed begins at 7 on Monday evening, October 2, and the public meeting follows at 7:30 p.m. The meeting can be attended remotely, via Zoom.

The developer seeks preliminary major and final major site plan approvals and bulk variances for the daycare center, which is a permitted use in the zoning district, according to board engineer Stacey Arcari, of Environmental Resolutions Inc. of Mount Laurel. 

An estimated 185 children and 30 employees would be at the center, requiring 61 parking spaces, Arcari told the board in her review letter. The developer is asking for a parking variance to allow only 42 spaces, she wrote.

Plans filed with the board show the only access to the parking lot will be from Coles Avenue. The Church Road side will be fenced, according to the plans. The center would include an outdoor playground.

Children in the center would be from 6 weeks to 5 years old and summer programs may be offered for children as old as 10, according to the developer's operations report.

Operating hours are expected to be from 6:30 a.m to 6:30 p.m. from Monday through Friday.