Child-Care Ordinance Is Rejected by Council : Zoning: Critics claim the new law would allow centers for more than 12 children in single-family areas. Supporters will revise the proposal.

A proposal aimed at making it easier to open large child-care centers throughout Glendale was defeated Tuesday after two City Council members argued that such centers do not belong in neighborhoods zoned for single-family houses.

The proposed ordinance was designed to ease the zoning restrictions on centers for more than 12 children in residential, commercial and industrial areas. But the ordinance was voted down because of a dispute over the section concerning single-family neighborhoods.

Supporters said they were trying to encourage the opening of new child-care centers at churches and synagogues in such neighborhoods. But city officials said the new law could also allow a large child-care center to open in a private residence.

Council members Ginger Bremberg and Carl Raggio objected, saying child-care centers are businesses and would detract from the quality of life in neighborhoods of single-family houses.

“I continue to feel it’s an invasion on the serenity and privacy of a neighborhood,” Bremberg said.

The proposed day-care center ordinance needed approval by four of the five council members because it involved changes in the city’s zoning rules. The council is expected to reconsider the measure after it is revised to prohibit large day-care centers in single-family neighborhoods.

“I thought we were heading toward facilitating the situation,” Councilman Richard Jutras said. “But instead, we’ve taken a giant step backward.”

Jutras, Councilman Jerold Milner and Mayor Larry Zarian supported the original measure. They said Glendale has a serious shortage of child-care facilities, and the city should remove some of the legal obstacles that keep new centers from opening.

State law already allows child care for up to 12 children in a single-family residence. The proposed ordinance would have allowed centers for more than 12 children to open in a single-family neighborhood, if the operator obtained a permit from the city.

When the ordinance was first discussed last summer, council members said they wanted to allow churches and synagogues in single-family zones to offer large child-care programs.

But City Atty. Scott Howard told the council that the First Amendment prohibits the city from allowing child-care programs only at religious institutions. Because the city cannot impose that restriction, a secular child-care center could try to open in a large house, he said.

City Manager David Ramsay said an application to care for more than 12 children in a house probably would fail to meet state health and safety requirements as well as city rules governing issues such as parking.

“It’s our recommendation that there are enough safeguards to protect the residential integrity,” he said.

But Raggio warned, “You don’t write laws assuming it’s not going to happen.”

A study conducted last year for the Greater Glendale Child Care Council estimated that at least 5,500 more child-care center spaces are needed for Glendale infants and children up to seventh grade. The study said Glendale’s centers were serving only 27% of the children who need care.

Jane Whitaker, president of the child-care group, said two new Glendale child-care centers opened this year, and a third increased its enrollment. But those centers provided fewer than 150 new spaces, she said.

Child-care advocates have urged the city to streamline its rules.

“There are so many restrictions and restraints on getting one of these opened in the first place,” Whitaker, who is also a Glendale Board of Education member, said in an interview. “We don’t want to trample on people’s yards, but we want to increase the latitude for those who wish to have a child-care center.”

She was uncertain how many Glendale churches in single-family zones might have opened child-care centers if the proposed ordinance had been adopted.

Whitaker said she is optimistic that the council will approve the revised ordinance, improving the prospects for new child-care centers in commercial areas and apartment neighborhoods.

“I feel we’re working toward a compromise,” she said.