Austin Children’s Academy—located at 12310 N. RM 620, Austin—is a locally owned Montessori school that specializes in education programs for children from infant age to elementary school levels.
The special-use permit will grant additional day care uses onto the adjacent property and convert the existing 3,500-square-foot building into four classrooms, which will allow for additional educational services, according to city documents. The drop-off area, outdoor playground and parking will remain the same and be able to serve expansion.
Owner Sam Gupta plans to occupy the new building with six- to 12-year-olds, which expands Austin Children’s Academy’s services to offer lower and upper elementary school levels.
Council Member Mel Kirkland expressed concerns over the subject property—which is located at 12308 N. RM 620—having a day care center use and being so close to a major roadway.
“My fear on the project is that people pulling in from [RM] 620 are going to be making right or left turns close to the speed of [RM] 620, which can get very high at different times of the day,” he said. “This is one of the problems with day cares, child centers, schools—when they’re on major roadways—is we allow the use and then ... they come back a few months later and want traffic evadements or yield signs.”
For better safety and to prevent the school’s traffic from flowing directly onto RM 620, council suggested directing the vehicles onto side street Blue Ridge Drive, instead, to which Gupta agreed.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time; if you’ll allow us to honor that in good faith and make sure that we’re keeping everybody safe—which is our No. 1 priority before anything—we’d be more than happy to comply,” Gupta said.
