COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — Colorado Springs City Council voted eight to one Tuesday to advance a proposal that would reduce zoning restrictions on child care facilities, with a second and final vote expected at the council's next meeting on June 9.
The proposal would change certain residential zones to civil zones, giving child care facilities greater flexibility in where they can locate and expand. There would be a process to getting a zone changed, and people in the residential areas would be notified ahead of time.
- Watch News5's coverage of the zoning changes below:
Liz Denson, CEO of Early Connections, said current zoning rules limit where child care centers can be built. The proposed amendments to the current Unified Development Plan would lessen those hurdles.
"This reduces those limitations, allowing childcare greater flexibility to be able to come in and build a smaller or large center to help increase the childcare capacity in our community," said Denson.
Denson said expanding into underserved parts of the city is critical to addressing the shortage.
"We've got to be able to backfill into neighborhoods and backfill into areas of the city where childcare doesn't currently exist to stand up capacity in a meaningful way," said Denson.
Not everyone at City Hall Tuesday was fully on board. Dianne Bridges, a member of the Historic Uptown Neighborhood Board, said she supports some aspects of the proposal, but has concerns about large-scale commercial child care operations in residential areas.
"We support the accessory additions with churches or schools, that's awesome. We support all the larger commercial centers and non-residential commercial areas," said Bridges. "Our concerns were largely with the large scale, unlimited scale of commercial operations in a residential area. I mean, our residents wouldn't want something like that right next to their home."
Bridges said a conditional use process would better protect neighborhoods as opposed to commercial.
"Having a conditional use is more appropriate because that brings the public in early in the process, and you can look at whether or not a large center or a small one is compatible right next to your home, or in your community and that has been waived," said Bridges.
Denson framed the child care shortage as a community-wide issue, not just a challenge for individual families.
"Everyone works with someone, maybe they are themselves, looking to take care of their children. Parents need childcare to work, and when we think about it from that perspective, that this is really not a parent's issue, that it's an entire community's issue," said Denson.
City Council's second and final vote on the ordinance is scheduled for its next meeting in June.
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