Abutter appealing site plan change on former Toddle Inn building in Saco business park

SACO — The owner of a Willey Road business is appealing to the planning board a site plan change made by the city planner which allows public and private schools at 5 Willey Road.

Starting this upcoming school year, the Saco School department’s Pre-K school building is at 5 Willey Road, the site of a former Toddle Inn day care center.

The School Department signed a 10-year lease with the Toddle Inn owner in 2019 and had intended to use the building in 2019-2020 school year, but that did not happen after the city ordered the school department to vacate the building. The city stated that the use of 5 Willey Road as a public school was prohibited by covenants in the Spring Hill Business Park, where the property is located.

Pre-K instead was held at multiple temporary locations in the city during the 2019-2020 school year.

This year, however, the school department has been given the green light to use the building.

In May, after multiple executive City Council sessions, a written statement was released on behalf of the city, school department and Toddle Inn stating that a tentative agreement had been made. The agreement included a 5-year lease of 5 Willey Road for the city’s Pre-K program, pending review by the city’s code and planning departments, according to the statement.

City Planner Emily Cole-Prescott on June 12 issued “a minor site plan approval” for a change of use request for 5 Willey Road from the previously approved conditional use of daycare center to permitted use of public and private schools, according to a July 17 memo she sent to the planning board.

Cole-Prescott said this decision was based on information she had received from the city administrator and city attorney that the city council had waived section 5.2 of the industrial park covenants.

City Attorney Tim Murphy stated in a May 19 letter to Cole-Prescott and Code Enforcement Officer Dick Lambert that park covenants that prevented the Pre-K facility at Willey Road in 2019 had been reviewed and waived based on circumstances not presented in the summer of 2019, when the city had ordered the school department out of the Willey Road building.

When the City Council in executive sessions on Feb. 24 and April 27 voted to move forward with a settlement agreement with Toddle Inn and the school department, it was also voting to waive the business park covenant, said Murphy. This statement is reiterated in a separate May 19 document signed by Mayor William Doyle and City Administrator Bryan Kaenrath.

In the May 19 letter, Murphy said there were three critical differences between matters that were current and what existed in summer 2019.

The city reviewed the search for a facility and the reuse of other space for the Pre-K program over the fall and winter of 2019, he said. After this review the council felt a more permanent home was necessary for the city’s Pre-K program and the 5 Willey Road property “fits the bill perfectly,” said Murphy.

The council was given notice of a potential lawsuit by the Toddle Inn for actions related to the lease signed by the Saco School Board, said Murphy. The lawsuit would have cost taxpayers money and would have resulted in continued disruption to parents waiting for a permanent location for Pre-k, he said. Murphy said that authorizing a waiver of section 5.2 of the covenant was within the discretion of the council and would result in a “complete resolution of a legal dispute” and save taxpayers significant cost.

After a new mayor and council were sworn in in November 2019, the council was interested in exploring a settlement for the three-way dispute between the city, school department and Toddle Inn, said Murphy. The parties engaged in mediation and Toddle Inn agreed to pay all real estate taxes, provided other conditions were met including the settlement of the dispute, said Murphy. This was a “marked difference” from the proposal submitted in the summer of 2019 that required the school department to pay the Toddle Inn’s taxes.

“Finally, the council could see a relaxation of Section 5.2 to be warranted given the owners will still pay all real estate taxes thereby assuring that the key goal of the industrial park (tax revenue generation) is still promoted and retained,” said Murphy.

With this section of the industrial park covenant waived, there is no other zoning ordinance or other regulating factor that would prohibit the use of a school on Willey Road, said Cole-Prescott in the July 17 memo.

“The Planning Board’s November 2019 denial of a use change request was solely based on section 5.2 of the industrial park covenants, because the Council had not granted a waiver at that time,” said Cole-Prescott.

Louis Waterhouse, who operates his business, LAW Calibration, on property abutting 5 Willey Road, has asked the planning board to appeal Cole-Prescott’s decision to change the accepted use of the former Toddle Inn building from day care center to public and private use schools.

Attorney Seth Brewster, representing Waterhouse, wrote in a July 1 letter that the industrial park covenants demonstrate “a clear intent to grow the tax base and foster new job growth and job diversity,” none of which would be accomplished if the school department used the property.

Brewster said the city has a history of denying similar requests from private parties hosting productive non-taxable uses in the business park which would have been consistent with the goals of the park. The use of 5 Willey Road as a school would also be disruptive to Waterhouse’s business, said Brewster.

The appeal is scheduled for Sept. 1.

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.