Daycare seeks city’s OK
New Westminster News Leader
By Michael McQuillan
June 06, 2008

“It’s a busy place,” said Glenbrooke Daycare operator Shirley Williams, as children chatter and play in every corner of the New Westminster non-profit day care.

By 3:30 p.m. the residential daycare is a full house, as the after-school children have arrived. Every room, plus the outdoor playground, is filled with 25 active kids.

“We’ve used every available space,” said Williams of the top two floors of the heritage home they currently use.

If Williams had her way, she’d have an even bigger house for the day care to accommodate more kids—something welcome in a city with a desperate need for more child care spots.

And that’s why she’s hoping New Westminster City Hall will give her permission to use a former legal suite on the ground floor of the house. If she gets the OK, the day care could accommodate seven more children in its before and after school program.

“I already have six families lined up who have children graduating from kindergarten to Grade 1. These families are relying on this come September,” said Williams.

So far the Fraser Health Authority day care inspector has approved the ground floor suite for seven children. But the city has not.

City staff have told her the six-foot-four ceiling is too low and it must be six-foot-11 to comply with the B.C. Building Code and the fire code….

The problem, from the city’s perspective, is Glenbrooke is not your usual day care.

To begin with, it’s classified as a daycare centre and not a family facility—which only allows a maximum of seven children.

“The standards are different between the two,” said John Stark, New Westminster’s social planner who is developing a city-wide childcare strategy.

And that’s not the only obstacle. The house where the day care is located is governed by a heritage revitalization agreement which sets out restrictions. In order for more spaces to be opened, the heritage agreement would need to be altered.

It could also be altered through a rezoning process, which requires a public hearing, is expensive and gives no guarantees city council will pass it.

“There’s 25 children there now and increasing to 32 has concerns for a residential area,” said Stark, adding that a Good Neighbour Agreement also oversees the day care.

All of those obstacles need to be overcome, said Williams. If the city doesn’t approve the additional spaces, at least six families will be without day care….

 “We understand the need and we’re trying to create more spaces. But there are a lot of issues around this,” he said….