Seal Beach planners on Wednesday, April 21, voted 4-0 to allow a large child care home to operate in College Park East. District 2 Commissioner John Larson was absent.
Director of Development Services Mark Persico said 10 people spoke during the public hearing on the issue.
He said three of those people opposed allowing the child care home in their neighborhood.
Sandra Luz Turner wanted a conditional use permit to operate a Family Child Care Home for a maximum of 14 children on Guava Avenue, a low density area of College Park East.
“There is an existing state license on the subject property for the operation of a Small Family Child Care Home, which has been in effect since at least December of 2008,” said the staff report by Senior Planner Jerry Olivera. Staff recommended the commission approve the proposal.
As of April 14, staff had received two letters and two phone calls from opponents of the project.
One of those letters was from Guava Avenue resident Jane McCord, who asked that the city consider denying the proposal.
“With the six children that are already being served, there is almost never available space in front of my house,” McCord wrote.
Her letter predicted that with 14 children, the house could receive as many as 28 trips a day from parents delivering or dropping off children.
“It is also unsafe for parents to park on the south side of Guava and walk their children across the street to the Turners’ house or to double park in front of the Turners’ house, due to the blind curve from Pansy onto Guava,” McCord said.
She said 14 children would change the tranquility of the street.
“I have already listened to children screaming and crying for extended periods and this is nothing compared to what those with adjacent back yards have to tolerate,” McCord said.
Olivera’s report said the city code requires a 6-foot fence for a large child care home and adding such a fence would be one of the permit’s conditions.
The report pointed out that the rear fence is a 5-foot wall with a 7-foot fence.
According to the report, staff believes the hedge and fence combination will be as good as or possibly better than a solid wall in minimizing sound.
McCord also raised concern that there was not enough square footage for permanent residents of the home.
State law does not allow cities to impose minimum square footage requirements for each child in a child care home.
Fellow Guava Avenue resident Don Spears also wrote a protest letter against the proposal.
Spears also argued that having a large number of children dropped off and picked up daily would create a dangerous traffic and parking situation for both residents and the children.
However, Olivera told the Sun that state law limits what cities can do to regulate child care homes.
Nancy Jezak of the California Department of Social Services, apparently told staff that state law preempted some requirements of the Seal Beach Municipal code for child care homes.
The staff report said Assistant City Attorney Steven Flower agreed. For that reason, staff did not recommend enforcement of a section of the code that requires a minimum square footage of play area for each child.
The staff report addressed the noise issue. “Outdoor play times are presently only scheduled for one hour in the morning and for two to three hours in the afternoon/evening further mitigating the amount of exterior noise generated within the property,” Olivera wrote.
In the event the conditional use permit was approved, McCord had suggested limiting the amount of time the children are allowed outside.
The staff also received two letters of support for the project after agenda packages were distributed to the Planning Commission members.
One, from Scott N. Herring of the California Department of Social Services, said a zoning agency may look at noise, traffic parking and congestion, “not whether the neighbors agree.”
A letter from attorney Diamond Tran of the Public Law Center, said state law protects people like the permit applicant from “arbitrary action.”
Tran wrote that the California Child Day Care Act removes most of the discretion from cities to regulate Family Child Care Homes.
