By Town Crier Staff

Stepping Stones preschool will have to relocate from Grant Park in two years to make room for recreational programs that neighbors have rallied Los Altos city officials to expand to the four-room facility in the south end of town. Last week the Los Altos City Council turned down the preschool’s request for a 10-year lease in favor of public recreation.

“The city did buy this property for recreation for the public,” Councilman Lou Becker said. “I find (the two-year extension) reasonable for Stepping Stones to make a transition.”

The city council offered the site to the child-care facility as an interim location in 2000, when Stepping Stones was forced to leave its Covington site due to the elementary school’s re-opening. The tight real estate market at that time would have forced the facility out of town, worsening the city’s child-care shortage, city officials said.

The agreement included a three-year lease and two of the four classrooms at the 3.5-acre park to provide services to 36 children, 16 infants and 20 preschool children.

The $43,900 collected in rent each year has gone into the city’s recreation budget.