TUSTIN : Day-Care Center Gets Approval to Remain

The City Council has suggested that residents along Ranchwood Road hold a community barbecue and start practicing community cohesiveness as a means to mend a rift between a resident who operates a day-care center at her home and her neighbors.

“It appears to me that the thing that really needs to happen on that street is to have a big barbecue so everyone can get to know each other,” Councilman Charles E. Puckett said.

The councilman’s remarks came just before a unanimous vote by the council Monday to back a Planning Commission decision that allows Socorro Jones to continue to operate her Family Day Care center in the house she rents on the 13000 block of Ranchwood Road.

Most of the written and verbal complaints received by the council about the day-care center were about traffic, parking, noise and the operation of a business in a residential neighborhood.

The council upheld the Planning Commission decision, primarily because the day-care center, which has been in operation for a year, meets all state and city codes. Also, City Atty. James G. Rourke wrote in a memorandum that the city has no grounds to revoke Jones’ business permit.

The City Council used the issue as an opportunity to urge residents to break down barriers. Councilman Jim Potts said, “We have to start getting along.”