City council sees bugs in daycare approval process
North Shore News
July 30, 2010
By Benjamin Alldritt

The City of North Vancouver may be re-examining its daycare approval policy after several city councillors described the current application process as "flawed."

Anyone hoping to open a daycare for more than eight children in a residential area of the city must comply with an array of requirements to obtain a business licence. They must develop a parking and traffic mitigation plan to the satisfaction of the city engineer, canvas all the neighbours with 100 metres for their opinion, and finally come before council to request the licence.

The bylaws were set up in April of 2009 …. Daycares are also regulated by health authorities….

"We've now seen this process is flawed," said Coun. Mary Trentadue. "It doesn't work that well. You go out and ask people's opinion about something and then they change their minds. They have a right to do that. Or they don't understand what you're asking, or they don't want to say no to you. The process we put out for applicants and the public is not working."

Coun. Rod Clark, a supporter of the 2009 regulations, agreed that the survey requirement "is indeed flawed," particularly in its handling of rented homes.

Coun. Craig Keating, perhaps the most vocal opponent of the daycare bylaws, said the city had "gone down a terrible road with the process we've got here.

"We used to spend most of our time not having applicants run around doing neighbourhood surveys but having applicants deal with issues as they came up," he said, adding that 900 North Vancouver families were unable to find spaces for their children.

"The biggest problem with daycares is there aren't enough of them," he said….

Council voted 6-1 to approve the business licence.