Alpha School's plan to open a campus in a former Saks shoe store at 20 East Elm St. hit a wall Tuesday, Sept. 15. Greenwich Planning and Zoning commissioners said the proposal has no safe way to drop off and pick up students.

The private AI-driven school network filed a pre-application (PLPZ 2026 00275) to change the building's use from retail to school, according to the town's P&Z agenda. Alpha School would occupy about 9,220 square feet of the first floor and enroll 40 to 60 students with no more than 10 staff.

The property has no dedicated parking. Under the proposal, parents would park in the municipal Bruce Lot, walk their children to a side entrance and hand them off to staff. Staff would park in the Liberty Lot across East Elm Street.

That plan drew immediate resistance.

The Bruce Lot's two-way access drive doubles as the Greenwich Police Department's employee entrance to its parking garage and a route to Greenwich Avenue businesses, Commissioner Nick Macri noted at the meeting. Commissioner Mary Jenkins questioned whether the Bruce Lot could handle midday pickup for 40 to 60 students.

"There are certainly not 60 parking spaces, probably not 20 parking spaces in the middle of the day in the middle of town," Jenkins said, as Greenwich Free Press reported. "If it doesn't work, you'll have informal pick up and drop off … The danger issue is not resolved."

Commissioner Brooks Harris called it "aspirational" to assume parents would find a spot and walk their children in without dedicated spaces. Commissioner Dennis Yeskey said the concept was great but the location was terrible.

Attorney Chip Haslun, representing Alpha School, described a staggered arrival and departure system outside peak hours. He said police do not make emergency responses from the garage and cited precedents including the Cos Cob library, which shares parking with the Cos Cob firehouse and has no pickup or drop-off lane, and a Christian Academy behind a Catholic Church in Riverside that operates with a shared parking lot and no pickup or drop-off.

Haslun asked whether the commission considered the proposal worth pursuing at all, or whether the school should commission a traffic study from engineer John Canning.

P&Z Chair Margarita Alban said the commission had "severe reservations." She said the commission would not commit municipal parking to a use of this scale without consulting Parking Services first. Alban directed the applicant to meet with Police Chief Heavey, who is familiar with traffic patterns on the access drive, before returning.

Commissioner Ann Noel Jones added that the Department of Public Works had completed a parking study that could provide relevant data on lot usage.

The building at 20 East Elm St. is owned by Elm Street RSK LLC. A medical office with 15 employees occupies the second floor. The commission previously capped the building at 68 employees, a restriction dating to when Greenwich Time operated there from 1937 to 2008.

Alpha School was founded in 2014 in Texas by MacKenzie Price. Tech billionaire Joe Liemandt later expanded the network and serves as its principal, according to Patch. Tuition runs $65,000 a year, Greenwich Time reported. The school opened a temporary location called Alpha Greenwich Port Chester on King Street, just over the Greenwich border, on Sept. 8.

No formal vote was taken at the Sept. 15 meeting. The pre-application stage does not require one. No date has been set for the applicant to return to the commission.