After 10 Years, a Downtown Day--Care Center Could Soon Be a Reality : Contract Talks With YMCA Near

Ten years and four city studies ago, the City Council determined that there existed a need for a downtown day-care center to serve children of the city’s 7,000 municipal employees. The plans died when a suitable facility could not be found.

In 1980, the council ordered a similar search for a downtown site that would meet the myriad requirements unique to child care, again with the same result. Two years later, the hunt intensified, with the council arguing that the demand for child care had burgeoned with the success of downtown redevelopment.

“An inventory of all possible sites was accomplished, including public and private buildings, schools, churches, parks and agencies,” Assistant City Manager John Lockwood recalled in a recent report. “All (including the Community Concourse and Balboa Park) were excluded on the basis of unavailability or unsuitability.”

Another three years have passed, and still there is no center devoted solely to day care for children of downtown workers.

A number of factors have contributed to the paucity of center city day-care facilities, or even a suitable downtown site for such a center:

- The high cost of leasing space, which has thwarted attempts by private concerns to locate a day-care center downtown. Planners have been forced to look for facilities in higher-rent sections of the urban core because of the perception by many parents that their children might not be safe in some areas of downtown.

- State licensing regulations that require ground-floor, outdoor play areas that are difficult to provide for in an expensive, densely built-up urban setting.

- City zoning requirements, which dictate that valuable ground space downtown be used for parking, landscaping and other amenities.

- The difficulty of recruiting corporate financial backers, who are not yet convinced that their downtown employees would use a day-care center.

Despite the impediments, Councilwoman Gloria McColl in recent months has pressed the drive for downtown child care, working with a consortium including the Junior League, YMCA and major corporations employing more than 6,000 people downtown, about 10% of the work force. For those who have worked and waited a decade for a downtown day-care center, the fourth time might be the charm.

The consortium is close to negotiating a contract for a YMCA day-care facility at Central Christian Church, located at First and Fir streets. In a recent Junior League survey, more than 450 employees from businesses who have considered donating funds to pay the estimated $100,000 in start-up costs for the YMCA center expressed an interest in enrolling their preschool children there. Initially, the center will have a licensed capacity of only 50.

“It’s clear that the demand is there and has been for years,” said Ann Spicer, who has spearheaded the Junior League’s participation in the day-care project. “And everybody knows the demand is only going to grow when the convention center and Horton Plaza open, and when the vacant offices start to fill up.

“But there are a number of restrictions and social and economic factors that have made opening a day-care center downtown extremely prohibitive. Just look at the history--it isn’t for lack of trying that there is not yet a preschool, day-care facility in downtown San Diego.”

“We know downtown child care is a new concept in San Diego, and there will be a lot of eyes looking over our shoulder,” Steve Totten, executive director of a YMCA child-care center in Southeast San Diego and the chief planner of the downtown project, said. “It’s important that we prove that there can be a model center that can stand on its own financially, but still offer services at a reasonably moderate cost, in the downtown area.”

Totten, Spicer, Lockwood and others figure their center will be watched closely. “If this pilot project succeeds,” Lockwood said, “it is hoped that it will encourage other private facilities in the downtown area to embark upon similar child day-care projects. The city will continue to work closely and cooperatively with all potential participants toward this end.”

The consortium, Lockwood said, is on the verge of achieving “a goal that has eluded the city for 10 years.” But even if the first downtown center achieves its lofty goals, it will never be a simple proposition to provide day-care downtown.

“To open any kind of a school downtown takes lots of creative thinking,” said Marion Persons, director of The City Tree, a private school located in what originally was the Sunday School for the First Presbyterian Church on Date Street. City Tree is the center city’s only school offering day-care services, with 180 students, ranging from infants to fourth-graders. More than 90% of City Tree’s clients work downtown, Persons said.

A major stumbling block facing downtown day care is a state requirement that a center have at least 75 square feet of outside space, on the ground-floor level, for each child. City Tree received a waiver to that requirement by building a rooftop playground, “but the regulators still weren’t too thrilled about it at first,” Persons said.

“That’s the toughest factor we’ve faced,” Spicer said of the space requirement. “Downtown, that ground space is the most valuable land around, and most of the time, it’s used for landscaping or parking. To get the kind of space we need usually costs just too much--it’s awfully hard to justify day care economically under those conditions.”

Fred Miller, head of the state Department of Social Services’ Community Care Licensing Division in Sacramento, said, “The issue of certifying downtown day-care centers poses a difficult problem.

“We realize our regulations are difficult for downtown centers to meet, but we have tried to be flexible--we look at each (urban) proposal on a case-by-case basis and try to offer alternatives for the urban locations. For example, if they can’t meet the 75-square-foot-per-child rule, we’ll let them stagger their play schedules, so maybe only five kids at a time are on the smaller playgrounds, instead of 15 or 20. Or, we’ll let the center use a nearby park, if it’s suitable--many urban parks aren’t, unfortunately.”

Miller said his agency “recognizes the advantages of encouraging day-care downtown. That’s why we haven’t issued a statewide policy on downtown centers--we want to maintain our ability to look at the proposals on an individual basis. It’s our best chance of licensing as many as possible.”

Compounding the expense of leasing a downtown facility is the reticence of many parents to send their children to anywhere but the most prestigious addresses.

“Location was one of the most critical factors,” Spicer said. “We’re very aware of the importance of a good, outside appearance. We can’t go to the big, unleased, cheaper buildings in the south Gaslamp, because people wouldn’t feel safe there. So that puts us in a position of competing for the most desirable leasing spaces.”

In addition, successful day-care demands quick access to freeways, public transportation and parking and safe traffic conditions. “In our survey, the No. 1 reason people listed for wanting downtown day-care was convenience--proximity to their jobs,” Spicer said. “A lot of them, of course, were professional people, and they felt they would have more interaction with their children if they were closer to work. But if we can’t provide that downtown--along with what they’re getting at day-care centers in other neighborhoods--we would struggle to attract a clientele.”

Although the consortium now speaks of opening the downtown YMCA center by January, there were times when the project was viewed with considerably less optimism. When McColl aide Ira Waddell and the Junior League representatives developed the initial request for proposals seeking a contractor to run the center, not one bid was entered.

“That had to be awfully discouraging,” Totten said. “Sure, it’s tougher to get day care started downtown, but you would expect at least one provider to express a little bit of interest.”

Fearing that the proposal would fizzle like its predecessors, Waddell contacted Totten, with whom she had worked on previous child-care projects, and convinced him of the overwhelming demand for a downtown center. Totten in turn sold the directors of the revamped Armed Services YMCA on sponsoring a trend-setting downtown day-care center that “would be a big feather in the Y’s hat.”

There also have been problems holding together the corporate participants in the consortium. Representatives from more than 30 downtown businesses showed up at the first meeting for prospective sponsors, but as the search for a site dragged on, “lots of them dropped by the wayside,” Totten said. Before negotiations opened with the Central Christian Church, the number of corporations interested had dwindled to fewer than 10, including SDG&E;, Great American Savings, John Burnham & Co., Home Federal Savings and Solar Turbines. The City of San Diego also is considering participating.

The corporations are involved in the planning for the center even though some still must be convinced that the project will succeed.

“We didn’t feel the response to the Junior League survey from our employees was overwhelming,” said Vicki Talley, SDG&E; manager for employee programs and benefits. “It’s our impression that a lot of our employees want their younger children closer to home. But if the center is a success, that could change some minds.

“Basically, we’re involved because we feel a downtown center would be a benefit to the community. It has definite social merits.”

Val DeWitt, human resources principal for Solar Turbines, which employs almost 2,000 people at its Pacific Highway location, said her company “recognizes the need for a downtown day-care center, and is committed to the concept. Potentially, a lot of our employees could use it.”

Spicer said participation by major employers holds the key to any downtown child-care center. “Those businesses will be looking over our shoulders,” she said. “But if we succeed, it will show others that investing in day care pays off. It’s the real trend of the future for day care, with the costs of starting a center so high.”

Already in San Diego County, the Junior League has formed consortiums of corporations to open day-care facilities in Solana Beach and Kearny Mesa, and another similarly-financed center for the Torrey Pines area is in the planning stages.

On another front, McColl, who sees the project as “a key part of serving a growing and thriving city,” is encouraging the city to assume a leadership role in providing downtown day care. Last week, at her behest, the City Council Rules Committee unanimously ordered yet another survey aimed at opening a day-care facility in a downtown, city-owned building, to serve the children of municipal employees. And the committee directed its staff to recommend strategies the city might follow in raising money for downtown day care.

The newest report is due in 90 days, and McColl said she and Waddell will respond to it with specific proposals “to get the city involved in this crucial issue.”

Since 1976, the city has channeled money for day care to centers in Southeast San Diego and Ocean Beach where, Lockwood said, “the most acute need exists.” His report added, however, that while the downtown project indicates progress in meeting the demand for day care, “there remains a crucial need for affordable day-care services in practically all areas of the city. The downtown area is a case in point.”