A Site For Kids

When a public hearing before the East Hampton Town Planning Board draws more than 100 residents, the proposal is obviously controversial - a major subdivision on a scenic piece of land, an expansion of an already obtrusive business, or a superstore.

It came as quite a surprise, therefore, when such a crowd was brought out by a proposal to site a moderately sized nursery school on a five-acre-parcel in a sparsely populated residential area.

Sound controversial? It shouldn't be, considering that all but two of the 15 public and private schools in East Hampton are in residential zones.

In the case of Deena Zenger's plan to relocate the Country School to Route 114, however, an organized group of nearby residents lined up to speak at the recent public hearing, citing everything from traffic dangers to nesting hawks in an attempt to convince the board to deny the school a special permit. Some argued that a commercial-industrial park was the appropriate place for a school. And, while all said they were not opposed to day care or to children, they were vehement in opposition to the proposed site.

Traditionally, here and elsewhere, schools have been correctly sited in residential neighborhoods. An industrial park is hardly the place where a community's youngest children should get their introduction to education. The opposition to Ms. Zenger's school seems to be one part reasonable concern and two parts of NIMBYism.

While the neighbors raised a number of practical concerns, such as the dangers of having a school along a 55-mile-per hour road, the brunt of their objections centered on potential noise, lights, and property values. They also took strong objection to Ms. Zenger's intention to run a summer camp there, which she says is integral to the private school's financial success.

The Town Code recognizes a school as a proper use of land in residential districts, provided that a list of special-permit conditions can be met. The Country School, which plans to take children from 18 months through 5 years old and would take them up to 8 during the summer, fulfills part of a very serious vacuum here.

It wasn't easy for Ms. Zenger to find a parcel large enough that the school could afford, and she has shown her willingness to be constrained by reasonable limits on what she can do there. She has spent a year trying to address each one of the Planning Board's standards.

The application deserves to be judged on its merits.