WESTMINSTER : Request to Expand Day Care Rejected

After a three-hour public hearing, the City Council rejected a family home day-care provider’s bid to double her program from six to 12 children, citing neighbors’ fears of increased traffic, noise and lower property values.

Christine Ogden, who operates the facility on Edinburgh Drive, said she will take her case to court.

About 50 residents turned out to oppose Ogden’s request at last week’scouncil session, while about two dozen came to support it.

Ogden said she was “offended and hurt” by the opposition, which she called “misinformed.”

“Now I realize these people were on a crusade and they were never going to stop,” she said after the vote.

Ogden’s opponents denied that they are “anti-child care.”

“The enjoyment of our lives in this neighborhood is in jeopardy,” said Nancy Parks, who lives down the street from Ogden’s facility. The expansion would “open the floodgates and wreck our single-family community,” she said.

Neighbor Kris Foley said she was concerned that the increased traffic would occur when children were most likely to be outside, and that “even one car can increase the danger.”

Some of Ogden’s supporters scoffed at suggestions that the addition of six children would significantly increase traffic in the area, or the noise level.

Diana Zimmer, who lives near the facility, said she was upset that “in the midst of a child-care crisis . . . I could be denied the day care of my choice because of people who don’t want me to drive down a public street.”

City Council members said that although they supported family home child care and were impressed with the level of care Ogden’s facility provides, they had to base their decision on the impact the expansion would have on the surrounding community.

Since 1983, the state has prohibited local governments from overseeing family day-care facilities with up to six children such as Ogden’s. However, cities may regulate facilities with up to 12 children, Ogden said.

But Justin Clouser, general counsel for the Poverty Law Center of Orange County, which will represent Ogden in court, said the City Council is being “more restrictive than the state allows and the state law takes precedence,” Clouser said.