PLACENTIA : Day-Care Expansion to Be Decided June 1

Neighbors of a family day-care home are fighting a request by the home’s operator to increase the number of children she cares for from six to 12.

Both sides took their pleas before the City Council on Tuesday in an appeal of a 4-1 Planning Commission decision against the expansion.

Day-care operator Tahira Vaziri, of Montecito Street, is seeking a special-use permit, which is required for larger family day-care homes that care for seven to 12 children.

The council postponed a decision on the appeal until its next meeting June 1. At Tuesday’s hearing, 10 residents of the neighborhood told the council that the increase in noise and traffic from an additional six children at the Vaziri home would harm their neighborhood.

“I am concerned about the noise,” Dee Erman said. “I don’t want to see 12 kids next door. I don’t want to be limited to using my pool only when the kids are napping.”

Erman said she uses a wheelchair most of the day, and her pool is her only form of physical therapy. She said she is concerned about children from the day-care home coming over a six-foot block wall into her yard and falling in the pool.

“My insurance agent said I need to have a $1-million insurance policy on my pool” because of the day-care home, Erman said.

Kristine Adams Charton, an attorney representing Vaziri, told the council that the city cannot ban large family day-care homes. State law allows a city to enact reasonable regulations governing parking, traffic and noise, Charton said, but any applicant who complies with the regulations must be granted the special-use permit. She said her client had complied.

“I have (successfully) litigated this identical issue with the city of Westminster,” Charton said, adding that Westminster was forced to issue the permit and had to pay $15,000 in attorney fees to the applicant.

However, Joyce R. Rosenthal, director of development services, said Wednesday that the city code requires that large family day-care homes must meet building and zoning regulations for single-family residences. The Planning Commission and the City Council may deny an application if the increase in noise, traffic and parking would violate those regulations, Rosenthal said.

The Planning Commission in April denied the application, citing a lack of adequate parking and a potential increase in traffic and noise. The Planning Department had recommended approval.