CHATSWORTH : Child-Care Center at Train Depot OKd

A city zoning administrator granted final approval to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation on Monday to construct a child-care center and historic depot at the Chatsworth Metrolink station.

“I think it’s a good project,” said associate zoning administrator Horace Tramel at a public hearing at the Sherman Oaks Woman’s Club. “I think it will encourage the use of rapid transit.” The 12,700-square-foot center will provide day care for up to 90 children, giving priority to parents who ride Metrolink and other mass transit. In addition, the zoning administrator approved a variance for construction of a 4,000-square-foot office space in the train station depot.

The first of its kind in Los Angeles County, the project faced no community opposition.

“It’s a real community project,” said Francine Oschin, legislative deputy to Councilman Hal Bernson. “Even the most vocal opponents of everything in Chatsworth are behind this.”

In addition to indoor and outdoor space for children age 6 months to 5 years, the center will house office and retail space.

“The sooner it can be up and running, the happier we will be,” Oschin said at the hearing.

The design of the depot recalls Chatsworth’s original Southern Pacific Station, which was torn down in the early part of this century. The depot will replace a platform and canopy which opened at the station on 21510 Devonshire St. in October, 1992.

Of the 400 commuters who use the Chatsworth station each day, the majority park at the station and take the train to Simi Valley, department of transportation officials said.

The others arrive at the station from locations outside the San Fernando Valley and take taxis to their workplaces.

The child-care center will operate from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Project planners expect to break ground on the center before summer’s end and predict that the day-care center could be in operation as early as the spring of 1995.

A similar project for the Sylmar Metrolink station is in the planning stages.