Saturday afternoon, Emma Jayne Bjormark looked out at two horses grazing in the Brackendale field that in 10 months will be a play area for 37 children at her new daycare.
“It doesn’t really seem real,” Bjormark said, more to herself than anyone present.
Bjormark, 31, recently bought the approximately two-acre, $1.2-million property – which includes a two-storey older home, a stable, workshop and a large front yard, where the neighbour’s horses graze – to fulfill her dream of opening up an outdoor-focused daycare.
Bjormark has worked with children in various settings, including at another Squamish daycare, for the past 10 years, but dreamed of branching out on her own.
“It’s always been something I wanted to do,” she said.
Bjormark, who also lives in Brackendale, plans to open Fresh Ayre, the name both a play on fresh air and a nod to her Scottish roots, in September 2015.
At Fresh Ayre, kids will be taught primarily outside where they will be free to climb and learn and explore rather than having only a limited time outside each day, as is typically the case with traditional daycares, Bjormark said.
Now that rezoning of the property to allow for the daycare passed third reading at council on Nov. 18, Bjormark is closer than ever to making her dream a reality.
But there have been plenty of hurdles along the way.
Several area residents took to the microphone to express concern or opposition to the rezoning at the public hearing on the rezoning, also held Nov. 18.
Most of the concerns raised were about the increased traffic the daycare would create in the neighbourhood.
Forty-four area residents signed a petition which was given to council requesting the daycare’s access be from Judd Road, not the quieter Maple Crescent.
Trish Duncan, who lives on Maple Crescent, spearheaded the petition.
“There wasn’t anyone I asked who didn’t sign it,” Duncan said.
“Everybody walks our street because it is the quiet one, it is safer than the other streets.”
Duncan stressed as a mother of two children herself she is not against the daycare per se or against Bjormark’s personally, but she’s concerned what will happen once 37 children and their parents are coming and going each day.
“You can’t always be ‘not in my back yard,’ but it would be a little bit nice if they took into consideration having the driveway off of Judd, so it would have less impact on our street, which is a quiet, residential street,” she said.
When the rezoning passed third reading, staff told council the development is not required to provide traffic calming measures.
For her part, Bjormark published an open letter on her website promising to take action to mitigate neighbours’ traffic fears.
“My commitment to you is that I will have each attending parent sign an agreement saying that they must use Judd road for entry and exit routing. Plus we will have a sign at our exit saying Exit to Judd Road,” Bjormark wrote.
With Squamish struggling to provide enough daycare spaces to meet the need, Bjormark does have supporters.
Maggie Phillips lives near the daycare and is looking forward to taking her two-year-old and four-year-old to Fresh Ayre.
“It is in our neighbourhood, which is hugely convenient,” she said.” Second of all, I really like [Bjormark’s] premise of an outdoor-based daycare, which seems quite different and unique. Even though we live in the outdoor capital… there is nothing that sort of boasts itself as an outdoor daycare.”
Phillips said while traffic is a concern, people in the community need to weigh the daycare against what else could be built on the property.
“It would be much worse if it were townhomes or a development,” she said. “At least it is something that is going to help the community.”
Bjormark gets the keys Dec. 10. She plans extensive renovations to the home and will transform the dilapidated workshop beside the house to a children’s art studio.
The horses will be returned to the neighbour’s yard, to make way for the children.
For more information, go to www.freshayredaycare.ca.
