NORTHRIDGE : Clash Resumes Over Child Care Center

A battle over a proposal to open a Northridge child-care center will resume today as the Los Angeles Board of Zoning Appeals considers whether to allow the center in a residential neighborhood.

The center, which is opposed by a group of neighbors who fear it will lower their property values, was the last thing on anyone’s mind in the weeks after the Jan. 17 earthquake. The Board of Zoning Appeals was scheduled to hear the case Jan. 25 but postponed the hearing in light of earthquake damage to the area.

Now, the homeowners have resumed the fight, a sign that life is returning to normal in suburban Northridge, a place where “normal” has often meant homeowners packing planning hearings to oppose commercial development.

The proposed child-care center has received tentative approval from the city. The applicant is Sherri Segre, who wants to move her existing day-care center in the vicinity into a single-family home on Devonshire Street.

Segre has received permission to care for up to 36 children in the home, provided that she abide by a list of conditions. Most are aimed at warding off potential traffic hazards as parents drop off and pick up their children.

Segre has agreed to the conditions, and in past interviews has maintained that the center will not be as disruptive as neighbors imagine, and will provide a needed service in the area.

Gloria Rothenberg, past president of the North Valley Homeowners Federation, which has filed an appeal to block Segre’s permit, said that the child-care center would affect more than 100 homes in the area. For years, she said, neighbors along once-residential Devonshire Street have watched what she termed “creeping commercialism” overtake their neighborhood.

Approval of the child-care center would create a precedent for more businesses to move in, Rothenberg said.

The hearing is at 11 a.m. today in City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles.