Greenwich Private School Seeks Additional Staff Housing, Expanded Faculty Day Care Center

GREENWICH, CT — One of Greenwich's private schools is seeking to add more staff housing and an expanded faculty day care center to its campus, according to documents recently submitted to the Greenwich Planning & Zoning Commission.

To better support housing needs, Greenwich Country Day School is proposing to add 20 new housing units with a total of 52 bedrooms to its existing Schwarz Campus at 23 Fairfield Road, and an expanded day care facility.

Specifically, plans call for the construction of a new two-and-a-half-story, 10,225 square-foot, eight-unit pre-fabricated apartment-style building located just north of the existing "Schwarz House."

Twelve new pre-fabricated, three-bedroom townhouse units in four buildings are proposed to be built along the westerly side of the one-way driveway on the property, complementing the existing single-family units in the area, according to submitted documents.

"As the Commission is aware, the Fairfield County housing market presents well-documented affordability and availability challenges for educational employees," wrote Michele Cronin, a planner working with the school on the project.

"Accordingly, GCDS strives to provide a substantial percentage of its teaching staff with housing. This practice, employed by many peer institutions, allows schools to retain high-caliber teachers who would otherwise not be able to afford to live in close proximity to the school."

Along with promoting recruitment and retention, providing proximate housing "serves several important institutional and community objectives," including program delivery, campus stewardship and safety, and traffic and sustainability benefits, Cronin explained.

A pre-fabricated 2,853-square-foot addition is proposed to be added to the existing 2,000-square-foot faculty day care facility.

"This need has arisen under existing conditions and is expected to grow with the addition of new housing units. In particular, as the school’s faculty has evolved over time, with newer, early-career educators joining the staff, the demand for accessible, proximate child care has increased," Cronin added.

Submitted plans also call for the construction of 28 new parking spaces and the installation of lighting consistent with multi-family residential developments, along with proper landscaping.

Other work on the site includes stormwater management improvements, sanitary sewer, electric and natural gas service upgrades, and a one-way vehicular circulation route through the site.

The application is being submitted for a pre-application review and is expected to go before the Greenwich Planning & Zoning Commission in the coming days. Such reviews are non-binding and allow applicants to receive initial comments from the commission.