New Private Elementary School Makes the Grade

Local families may soon have another option for elementary education.

A new private elementary school plans to open in the former Armstrong Garden Center on Portola Parkway.

Heritage Montessori School selected Lake Forest as the location for its second education campus—a sister site to the school that has operated in Huntington Beach for 25 years.

When the plan for the Lake Forest school first came before the city's Planning Commission in late October, .

The proposal, with the addition of four conditions to assuage concerns about traffic conflicts with nearby businesses in the complex, passed Planning Commission scrutiny Thursday.

Under the approved agreement, the school must prepare a student drop-off and parking management plan; maintain copies of the plans signed by the guardian of each student enrolled on file; be subject to circulation mitigation measures if traffic conflicts necessitate them; and limit special events.

Heritage Montessori will move into the empty retail storefront at the north end of the Foothill Gateway Center. Approval was also granted for the construction of a second building about half the size of the standing structure that will house additional classrooms and office space.

The sole change was the elimination of a large colorful mural planned for the south side of the new building, which the commission nixed, opining that the 49 square-foot sign "wouldn't add anything" to the overall design.

Total campus enrollment will top out at 150 students, from 2 years of age to 7 years of age, for preschool- and elementary-level classes, according to school administrators.