Belfast child care facility moving to new location

A Belfast business that provides services and education to children on the autism spectrum is moving to a new location.

The city’s planning board on Wednesday night approved the relocation of Discovering Kids from the church where it currently operates on Mill Lane to a new space at 26 Searsport Ave. that it will own.

Allen Tomasello, the program director of Discovering Kids, has run it for the last 20 years, serving kids starting at the age of three and providing both daily care and skills development.

“It’s a small child care facility, so we’re licensed for up to 12 kids, so that would be the maximum; and there’s four teachers at this point,” Tomasello said on Wednesday night.

The move required planning board approval because Discovering Kids intends to add landscaping and parking for up to eight vehicles at the new location, according to a meeting agenda. During the meeting, the board reviewed the business’s licensing and its plans for landscaping, lighting, parking and trash removal, among other things.

Tomasello also gave an overview of the services he provides to children on the autism spectrum.

“What we’re trying to ensure is teaching them language skills, so how to talk — receptive language skills, that is, how to understand what people are saying to them, how to play, self-care skills, pre-academics, so that when they get to school at age 5, they require the least amount of support as possible,” Tomasello said.

The same property was previously reviewed by the planning board in August 2022 when the previous occupant intended to convert it from a single-family home into office space.

No timeline was given for the relocation of the business. Following the meeting, Tomasello said that he was relocating into a property that he would own in order to stop paying rent for the current space.