Squamish councillors have praised a child care centre for “finding a new way” to accommodate more children.
At the July 15 regular business meeting, Kiddie Cloud Montessori received its first three readings for a rezoning application to expand their home-based centre from the ground floor to the entire property.
In local government, there are three readings and then adoption. For all intents and purposes, once a proposal passes three readings, it is a certainty.
The Valleycliffe child care centre is located at 38320 Westway Avenue and currently provides care for 16 children aged between two and a half to five years old.
District planner Aja Philp said the property is currently zoned residential 1 and is seeking to rezone to a comprehensive development zone 117 to “allow for the residential property to become the dedicated child care facility.”
“The current facility operates on the ground floor of the residence, and if the rezoning is successful, the applicant intends to convert the second story of the residence to child care so that the entire residence becomes a full child care facility.”
Philp said no limit on the number of child care spaces is proposed within the CD 117 zone as “the number of spaces is regulated by the provincial child care licensing regulations, as well as the BC building code.”
Seven parking spaces are required to meet the zoning bylaw minimum requirement; however, Philp said these were unable to be met due to “property size constraints.”
“Four spaces can be accommodated on site. To address the three-space shortage in the short term, staff anticipate that overflow parking will occur on-street on the north side of Westway Avenue,” she said.
“Engineering staff have recommended that a crosswalk be installed across Westway to support the overflow parking option on Juniper Crescent.
“The applicant has offered to install the crosswalk across Westway, which will include widening and paving the northeast shoulder of the Juniper and Westway intersection.”
The rezoning application received 44 public comments, 43 of which were in support of the proposed child care expansion and one against.
Philp said District staff were in support of the rezoning application as the proposed new child care spaces “contribute to the Squamish child care needs assessment and strategy vision that Squamish families have access to a range of affordable, accessible, high-quality child care options.”
“These spaces will contribute to improving our child care access rate, which is currently below our action plan reach target.”
According to the report to council in 2024, “the overall child care access rate in Squamish was 26 spaces per 100 children ages 0 to 12 years (a 26% access rate) which is a positive increase from the 22% access rate in 2023; however, the improved access rate is largely attributable to consecutive child population declines in 2023 and 2024.”
The District’s Child Care Action Plan has a target rate of 30% access rate, which would require the creation of an additional 860 spaces over the next 10 years, based on child population projections.
Kiddie Cloud Montessori stated in the report that their waitlist is currently at approximately 150 children seeking care.
Council comments
All councillors were supportive of the rezoning application and the plans to install a crosswalk to improve user safety.
“Thanks very much to staff for finding a way to facilitate ... effectively safe transport of children to the child care facility along Westway. It gives me great confidence,” Coun. Andrew Hamilton said.
“I think there's a level that we need to trust, that the parents dropping off kids at the child care are going to be doing so in a responsible manner, and if they don't, that there will be bylaw complaints about parking on street, and any issues will need to [be dealt with in] that way.
“But on the broader scope, I think this appears to be an excellent way to bring child care into our community, certainly less expensive than other child care in Valleycliffe.”
Coun. Lauren Greenlaw said she was “very happy” to support the proposal as all councillors around the table know that the community is in “desperate need of child care.”
“Our lack of available child care disproportionately impacts women, and can be devastating to women who have worked years to establish careers, only to have their work invalidated by a forced multi-year absence due to lack of childcare,” she said.
“And also the mental health impact of parenting without needed support is massive and underreported.”
Greenlaw also noted that as a resident of Valleycliffe, she was very happy to see the crosswalk being put in.
“It's really difficult to cross the street in that location without a crosswalk. And I do hope, given the location, that many parents will walk and bike their children to the childcare instead of driving. And I'm happy to hear the proponent is supportive of this mode shift as well,” she said.
Coun. Chris Pettingill said that he believed having fewer parking options would help to create a “utopia” where parents and children can walk to child care locations.
“From the data we have, there are child-dense neighbourhoods basically everywhere in Squamish, it is a community of families and young children, and there are plenty of people … in walking distance to fill this daycare up,” he said.
“I think one of the things that encourages people to drive to the daycare is the lack of daycare in Squamish. And so to get the one that can fit your kid, you're maybe feeling like you have to drive across town to get there.”
He said the District should help make it easier for new daycares to open in communities where kids already are, to avoid people driving across town to access child care.
“I think reducing the parking requirements is a way to have more daycares in communities that people can walk to, and then people will walk to them with their kids,” he said.
“This one isn't going to solve the whole problem, unfortunately, but is it a step towards alleviating parking challenges related to daycare. And I hope to see a place where if you're a family, you can count on there being a walkable daycare in your neighbourhood.
“I hope this is another step towards that eventual utopia.”
Councillors voted unanimously in support of giving the rezoning application its first three readings. It will return to council at a later date for adoption.
For more information on Kiddie Cloud Montessori, visit their website.
