Thomas Building
(Goddard School and Offices)
June 27, 2008
The information in this document comes
from a meeting requested by the
developer with representatives of the
SSARPC Steering Committee. The meeting
took place on April 21, 2008.
The proposal is for a franchise of the
Goddard School, a school for young
children. It will serve children from 6
weeks through kindergarten, plus before
and after school daycare for school-age
children. It is to be built on the west
(Olney) side of the Sandy Spring Bank in
Sandy Spring, along Route 108 and
sharing the “insurance complex” of
buildings.
The school will be for 196 children and
will have about 12,000 square feet of
floor space. It will operate
Monday-Friday, from 7 am until 7 pm.
There are no recurring weekend events,
but there might be occasional events for
non-profit organizations on weekends.
About 20% of the families have two or
more children in the school, thus
significantly reducing the number of
trips. The school is very concerned
about security; those people allowed to
enter the first floor will have to use a
fingerprint-reading device and there
will be continuous video surveillance.
Also, the parents are required to walk
their children into the school.
At this time there are very few
specifics determined about the building
design. The requirements of the school
are being developed first. The current
plans are for the building to be three
stories, 30 feet high (allowed in the
zoning), 190 feet long and 60-65 feet
wide. The floor space of the building
will be 36,000 square feet. The FAR
(Floor Area Ratio) is 0.42. The entire
first floor will be for the classrooms;
floors two and three will be offices.
The building will be located next to the
sidewalk along Route 108 and the trees
that are there now will remain. There
will be an entrance from the street that
takes people to the single elevator in
the building and also stairs (located at
the east end, near the bank). There
will be doors to the outside throughout
the first floor, but the doors will be
for exiting only from the classrooms
(for emergencies). The entrance for the
children will be at the back of the
building. The reason for having only
one entrance for the children is the
security requirements of the school.
There will be parking for 205 cars in
back of the building, in a two level
parking garage. The parking will be for
use by all of the tenants in the
surrounding buildings. The incoming
traffic flow will be via a road between
the Sandy Spring Bank and the Goddard
school. Exiting will be via the same
road or, for those who want to turn
left, Meeting House Road (which will
have a light at Route 108).
On the west (Olney) side of the building
will be a playground that goes from the
sidewalk to the south end of the parking
area. There will be a fence, possibly
wrought iron, around the playground for
security.
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