Vasquez Seeks New Approach for County : Developer Role in Child Care Proposed

Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez complained Tuesday that the county has a growing problem of inadequate child care facilities, and he proposed a study to investigate working with private developers to open new centers.

Vasquez suggested that companies planning future commercial developments should work with the county in locating new day-care facilities as part of their projects. He said the Mission Viejo Co. has agreed to join in the effort as part of a planned development supervisors are scheduled to consider today.

“Available, affordable and quality child care has become a public issue of unprecedented magnitude,” Vasquez wrote in a letter to the Board of Supervisors. “The opportunity exists for the county to provide an innovative and progressive response, via a partnership of the public and private sectors.”

Role Model for Private Sector

Vasquez said the county should be a role model for the private sector by opening a child-care facility for its own employees in the Civic Center in Santa Ana.

“I would like to provide some leadership on this key issue because I, as the parent of an 8-year-old, have gone through the situation where you are unable to find day care,” he said.

The supervisor’s request for a study by the county’s Environmental Management Agency is scheduled to be considered by the board next Tuesday.

Orange County, according to Vasquez, has the second-largest population of children in California and county administrators expect the number to increase 17% during the next decade. Among the most prominent barriers to the development of such child-care centers, he said, are the lack of both start-up capital and low-cost land for development.

To ease the way for such centers, he suggested that the county lease parkland to private developers at a low cost for development of child-care facilities.

Vasquez said the county’s critical shortfall in child-care services has been caused by the growing number of single-parent households and dual-income families.

Currently, he said, there are only 3,636 licensed day-care spaces in the county for 66,400 children under the age of 2, and only 36,291 spaces for about 137,000 children ranging from ages 3 to 5.