The Green River City Council heard the first reading of an ordinance that will alter the maximum number of kids permitted in a home daycare Tuesday night. This ordinance will also allow a daycare center to be included in an R-1 or R-2 zoning district.
The Welcome to the Jungle Daycare, located on Hitching Post Drive, has been working on the change since November 2019. Welcome to the Jungle is the only daycare that moved to have the change added to the ordinance. There has not been a change to this ordinance since 2012.
The reason the daycare wants to change the ordinance is due to age restrictions.
According to the state laws governing daycares, the daycare can only have a curtain number of children in each age group. In order to ensure, on a per-client basis they have room for families expecting more children, it is necessary to have the maximum number of children increased.
The requesting family is currently classified as a Family Child Care Home which, as defined by the state, is allowed to have three to 10 children with no additional staff. Changing the Welcome to the Jungle into a Family Child Care Center would allow for a maximum of 15 children as well as one additional staff member.
This change does not directly affect any other daycares, however it is also not only specific to Welcome to the Jungle. This change will affect everyone in the R-1 and/or R-2 zoning district. Therefore, if another daycare within the zoning area wishes to have a maximum of 15 children, it can.
The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the change at it’s July 8 meeting.
Letters will be sent out to adjacent property owners and if any objections are received, it will go before the commission for reconsideration.
If a written objection is not received, the zoning administrator will approve the conditional use permit application.
The public will be allowed to voice their opinions on the possible change during the public comments portion of the meetings. The change must go through three separate readings before final adoption into the ordinance.
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