Meadowbrook Shopping Center developers respond to safety, traffic concerns, as project moves forward

The Prairie Village Planning Commission on Tuesday evening gave the green light to Meadowbrook Shopping Center’s facelift — and to a plan to add a daycare facility run by Georgia-based Primrose Schools.

Developers Klover Architects, of Lenexa, and R.H Johnson Company, of Kansas City, Mo., originally submitted preliminary and final development plans to the city in August to bring the 14,000-square-foot daycare to the shopping center.

While the planning commission tabled the final development plan due to traffic and safety concerns, both the planning commission and the city council have approved the preliminary development plan.

Now, the developers say they’re ready to move forward with the project.

“We’re extremely excited about getting started with this project,” said Eric Gonsher, a R.H. Johnson representative. “We clearly heard your concerns as it relates to the daycare.”

The daycare will hold 11 classrooms and 201 children.

Previously, commissioners raised concerns about traffic flow during drop off and pick up times at the daycare.

In response to those issues, Klover representative outlined the following plan:

• Primerose, the daycare operator, requires parents to drop children off directly with their teachers, meaning parents must park and get out of the car.
• The daycare center will do a staggered drop off from 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., as well as a staggered pick up from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. This will aim to cut down on large influxes of cars, children and parents in the parking lot and general area all at once.
• There are three points of entry to the parking lot, two on W. 94th Terrace and one on W. 95th Street. The 95th Street entrance also serves as one of two exit points into the daycare.
• Parents will all be required to bring students into the building via the south entrance, which faces W. 95th Street. There’s one pedestrian pathway from the north parking lot, and two pedestrian pathways from the south parking lot that lead to the front door.
• The single entrance point to the daycare itself is also intended to address commissioners’ previous concerns about safety, and the daycare center’s ability to keep track of who is coming in and out of the building.

John Finnemore, Primrose School development project manager, said the north and south parking lots and planned circulation methods should make for a “very smooth procedure.”

Finnemore said drop off and pick up take about 10 minutes each, meaning one parking spot equals six turnovers within one hour, on average.

“Our patrons are with us for, literally, years, so as [the Klover representative] said they develop their patterns and they develop them very quickly,” Finnemore siad. “This parking lot and available space — especially in the morning when there’s not as much activity there — is really ideal for our use.”

The planning commission unanimously approved the final development plan.