business
Irish Channel corner store, Ecole Bilingue childcare center receive planning commission approval
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With relatively minor opposition, both a corner store’s request to reopen on Jackson Avenue in the Irish Channel and the conversion of a residentially-zoned building on General Pershing into the childcare center for Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle Orleans received the approval of the City Planning Commission on Tuesday afternoon. Ecole Bilingue plans to put six classrooms and a cafeteria inside the old two-story house at 812 General Pershing, remodel the garage at into a playroom and install outdoor playground equipment, but it needs city council approval before it can use the house as a child-care center under its current zoning, according to the preliminary report filed with the City Planning Commission. No one from the school spoke on behalf of the project, but Travis Guilbault, a neighbor on Constance Street, asked the commission to deny the request on the grounds that the school will increase noise and traffic in the neighborhood and consume on-street parking – despite a planned 27-space parking lot for the school. “That parking lot does not seem sufficient,” Guilbault said. The commission voted 7-0 to send Ecole Bilingue’s request to the city council with its approval, subject to a number of conditions.
