Plans are underway for a commercial daycare on 10th Street SE in Salmon Arm.
Mona Lisa Braga, owner-operator of Dayhome Friends Care, has applied to the city to rezone a parcel at 60 10th St. SE from R1, single family residential, to R4, medium density residential zone, to facilitate a daycare that could accommodate eight or more children.
The applicant wishes to provide additional daycare spaces by converting the existing family childcare space in the basement of the home to a commercial daycare.
At the Feb. 21 planning and development services meeting, planning staff said the applicants have worked to meet the R4 regulations, which can be challenging on a smaller parcel. Because of the parcel size, staff suggested including a covenant to restrict the use to a daycare.
Planning staff support the application as the official community plan backs daycare use in all residential areas.
The planning report said the city currently has 19 active daycares within the city, including the Dayhome Friends Care. Of the 19, five other daycares are also within single-family dwellings. The most recent daycare-related application to be brought before council was for the property at 931 12 St. SE, which reduced the number of off-street parking spaces from 14 to six stalls and waived the requirement to provide hard-surface parking on-site.
Staff said the 10th Street SE parcel has just enough area to provide the required three off-street parking spaces for the eventual commercial daycare, in addition to the two required for the family home.
The application was forwarded to the next council meeting for consideration.
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martha.wickett@saobserver.net
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