Preschool, private school student cap removed from city code

After years of debate, the Draper City Council has unanimously voted to change the city code that determines the number of students allowed in preschools and private schools in residential areas.

The council voted, Jan. 3, to change Municipal Code Title 9-27-210. Now the cap for students will be determined by the building occupancy and the city planning committee.

“We are absolutely thrilled,” said Marilyn Larsen, owner and founder of The Corner Canyon Academy. “This has been six years coming. It has been a relentless and amazing ride.”

Since 2006, Larsen has appealed to the city council to amend the code in order to allow her to admit more students after the school moved to a larger facility.

The specific requirements of this code only apply to The Corner Canyon Academy because it is the only residential general preschool in Draper.

“The cap was adopted from original plans made during a time when Marilyn was only able to accommodate 45 students in a smaller building,” City Planner Dennis Workman said. “It was supposed to be changed if she moved to a larger facility.”

In 2009, Larsen requested the code to be amended to allow 90 students. A counter appeal was made to the city by Craig and Shelly Densley, neighbors of Corner Canyon Academy. They cited objections to the school’s growth in the residential zone.

Subsequently, the request for expansion was denied after the city council determined the original ordinance was written to allow her to open the school for 45 students in that city zone. More evidence was required to determine the expansion of the school would not be a hindrance to the neighborhood.

At the Jan. 3 city council meeting, Shelly Densley and James Harrington, who also own property next to the academy, said the school was not prepared to accommodate more parking and they were displeased with the traffic that was already building up on 1300 East, due to the school.

“There has been a lot of opposition from neighbors,” Workman said. “They have fought her expansion because they do not like her location. We have engineers examining the impact created by the schools traffic on 1300 East and so far the data shows that the traffic is not making a sizable impact.”

Other residents of the neighborhood, as well as parents of children who go to the school, told the city council they didn’t feel the traffic was a problem.

The council discussed the traffic impacts of more students in the school and the ability for the school and nearby residents to accommodate more traffic with city planning officials.

Councilmember Jeff Stenquist was the first to suggest that the cap on the number of students admitted to a school be removed entirely from the code. He said building occupancy and traffic codes handled those concerns.

The removal of this part of the code enables preschool and private schools in residential areas to appeal to the planning committee to determine the amount of students they can admit to their schools based on their specific facility’s ability to accommodate students and traffic.

Larsen has submitted her request to the city planning committee. They will determine (based on location, traffic flow, and the size of the facility) the amount of students that can be admitted to The Corner Canyon Academy in the future.