Council OKs Proposed 24-Child Day-Care Center in Northridge : City Hall: The action gives the provider the green light to double the size of her current operation. She had sought to triple her enrollment.

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a proposal Tuesday to create a day-care center and preschool in a Northridge neighborhood, paving the way for the 24-child facility to open by September.

The council’s vote signaled at least a partial victory for Sherri Segre in her bid to enlarge her current day-care center in the 18000 block of Devonshire Street. It also put into motion a larger plan by two councilwomen to rethink the way child-care centers are reviewed by the city.

Centers that serve 12 or fewer children now can open with just a state license, but larger facilities proposed in residential areas of Los Angeles require city public hearings, which often prompt neighborhood disputes.

After Tuesday’s vote, Councilwoman Laura Chick said in an interview that she plans to ask the council next week to urge city planners and child-care advisers to create a set of guidelines. These would be used by the council to determine, possibly without public hearings, whether a child-care center is a good use for a single-family residence.

Chick and Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg maintain that residential areas may be the ideal places for such facilities.

Segre, who now cares for 12 children, had sought to triple her enrollment but faced opposition by some of her neighbors who argued that the larger business would be inappropriate at its present site. The proposal approved Tuesday by the council will allow her to double her number of charges, to 24.

“I’m happy it was approved,” Segre said. “Maybe somewhere along down the road it could be increased.”

Under city zoning laws, a child-care facility with more than a dozen children in a residential area requires at least one public hearing and the approval of a city zoning administrator.

Segre’s proposal was approved by a zoning administrator last year, but neighbors appealed the decision, eventually sending it to a council committee. There, the neighbors’ appeal was upheld and Segre’s plan rejected, with the issue sent to the full council for a vote.

Chick had proposed the smaller, 24-child center, but her colleagues failed to give their support during a first vote last week. Then the council turned around and approved it unanimously Tuesday.

A reluctant Councilman Hal Bernson was among those who voted Tuesday in favor of opening the center. Bernson had previously argued that the project would set a bad precedent and had asked his colleagues to reject it.

Moments after the vote, Bernson acknowledged that he had learned just before the vote that if neither his nor Chick’s proposals had garnered at least 10 votes, then the city would have to let stand the city zoning administrator’s previous approval of the 36-child facility.

“I still agree with the community on this, that because of the location it sets a bad precedent,” Bernson said. “Regardless of how altruistic and wonderful child care is, it is still a business.”

James Geoffrey Beirne, an attorney representing Segre, disagreed.

“It doesn’t represent commercialization down Devonshire,” Beirne said. “It’s about kids.”

Beirne said Segre and her husband, Fernando, plan to work closely with Bernson and homeowners to make sure they are “good neighbors.”

Councilwomen Chick and Goldberg, both of whom supported the project, had previously said the case demonstrates how difficult the city’s process makes it for child-care providers to meet the growing demand for day care.

Segre, who charges about $100 a week for each child, said her services are indeed in demand. She has a waiting list of 20 names, she said.