This coming February, the Dallas City Council will revisit requiring a Special Use Permit for neighborhood childcare facilities in single-family areas.
A public hearing on the matter was held Dec. 13, at which council members heard from a few residents who don’t like the idea of businesses operating near their homes. Council members also heard from city staff that Dallas-based licensed childcare facilities can only accommodate about 37 percent of children under the age of 5. More than half of Dallas is considered a “childcare desert,” said Assistant Planning Director Andreea Udrea. Only about 10 adult care homes exist in Dallas.
“We looked at the daycare needs in the City of Dallas, hence we made the recommendation the way it is and the City Plan Commission voted on it,” she said.
An SUP is required for childcare facilities and adult care facilities in areas zoned for single-family, commercial services, light industrial, and industrial manufacturing uses. CPC recommended that the SUP requirement be eliminated for single-family zones.
The facilities already are heavily regulated and the city imposes a cumbersome and costly SUP requirement on top of that, Councilman Chad West pointed out.
“The City needs to get out of the way here,” West said. “If anything, we should seek methods to make it easier for individuals to open licensed childcare facilities.”
Several options were presented, such as approving the CPC recommendation with an amendment that childcare facilities could also be allowed by right in industrial zones.
At the suggestion of Councilman Paul Ridley, who wanted an opportunity for more public input, the item was ultimately deferred to Feb. 14 in an 8-7 vote.
Neighbor Feedback on Daycare Facilities
District 6 resident Debbie Solis said some of the streets in her Ledbetter Gardens neighborhood are narrow and do not have sidewalks.
“If we allow daycares without an SUP in my community, it would be a safety concern,” she said. “Not all streets are built to have daycares. Drive around West Dallas and you will understand why we are so concerned.”
An adult residential care facility in the neighborhood causes problems with parking and crime, Solis added.
“What I see is no supervision,” she said. “I worry this new zoning will bring other similar adult daycares to West Dallas without any help from the state or the city.”
Jonathan Vinson, representing Parkland Hospital, spoke on behalf of Annie’s Place, one of the childcare facilities that operates within the Parkland campus and provides daycare for hospital employees and residents attending medical appointments. If requirements are changed for existing daycare facilities in industrial zones, Annie’s Place would be noncompliant, Vinson said.
“Our request is to be allowed to continue operating by right,” he said. “We are supportive of the language that allows childcare facilities to continue to operate by right in a number of zoning districts.”
Council Members Weigh in on Childcare Facilities
Udrea said city staff followed the usual process of advertising the development code change in the local newspaper of record. Staff also notified existing childcare providers.
Councilman Ridley expressed concern that neighborhood associations weren’t directly contacted about this “citywide amendment.” The District 14 council member also criticized the “anecdotal reporting’ and lack of data around the need for more care facilities.
“There has been an outpouring of emails from people in residential neighborhoods saying they weren’t aware of this coming down and they would like additional time to consider its implications so we can hold town halls for that purpose,” Ridley said. “I’m not necessarily opposed to this ordinance, but I think if we’re going to be true to our pledge to be data-driven we need to be able to justify any development code amendment that affects the entire city and all of the residents in residential areas.”
West said he doesn’t see the ordinance as being “against neighborhoods.”
“I see this as an ordinance for those who need childcare and cannot obtain childcare now because there are not enough facilities and not enough access to it in their neighborhoods,” he said.
